Kurt's Christmas
by ElvenMuggle
Summary: As a troublemaker, Kurt had always found himself in some kind of mess. But this time he was definitely in over his head...
1. Kurt's Morning

**Disclaimer: I do not own the X-men.**

* * *

><p>Kurt's eyes opened, eyelids fluttering in lazy contentment. He had just awoken from the most peculiar dream. The details were hazy but he knew it had something to do with the color pink, a couple of lonesome but friendly grizzly bears, and a brown something that continually swung back and forth in front of his eyes like a pendulum.<p>

Well, now that he thought about it, maybe it hadn't been as pleasant as he had initially thought. He couldn't for the life of him imagine what had been so nice about a dream that contained grizzly bears. But no matter how hard he strained to remember the dream, the details of it drifted further away from him.

Though it still bothered him that he couldn't remember it right off, Kurt pushed it to the back of his mind for now. After all, it was Christmas Eve today and the schedule was bound to be full.

Yawning widely, he threw the cover off of himself and swinging his legs off of the bed, he stood and headed for his closet. He had only taken three steps however, when he tread on a sock that he had taken off the night before and thrown aside. The sock slid on the hardwood floor and in response, he lost his balance. His elbows took the brunt of the fall, but his head hit the floor hard enough to make him wince.

Somehow he knew that if Kitty had been there, she would be yelling at him for never cleaning his room. This was, after all, the reason he had injured himself. Grunting, rubbing his elbow, and feeling grateful that Kitty hadn't been here to witness his ungraceful moment, Kurt brought himself back to his feet.

As he finally made it to his closet, he grumbled about evil socks that took sick pleasure in tripping innocent teenage boys and harming their elbows. He managed to dress himself without anymore harmful incidents, making sure to wear something that covered his elbow so that Kitty would never have to know what had happened here.

He made it down the hall and into the bathroom without running into anyone and once there, brushed his teeth, combed his hair, applied the necessary amount of deodorant, and smoothed the hair on his tail.

Once finished, he stepped back out into the hallway, feeling refreshed, hungry, and eager for the day ahead.

And that was when a pair of underwear smacked him on the side of the head.

Embarrassingly enough, this was not an altogether unusual occurrence in a house of full of hyper-active teenagers. All sorts of unmentionable objects were flung through the air each day but eventually you just learned to duck.

Sighing to himself, Kurt looked sideways at the pair of white underwear now resting on his shoulder.

"Guess what!" Bobby, obviously the one who had thrown the underpants, rushed up to meet him, his face flushed and a look of pure mischief covering his features.

"What?" Kurt asked warily, shaking his shoulder to try and make the underwear fall. He didn't want to touch them...

Bobby grinned. "You just got hit in the face with Wolverine's underwear."

A very uncharacteristic shriek came out of Kurt as he did a while jerking motion to the get the evil thing off of his shoulder. The underwear flew and landed behind him on the doorknob of the bathroom door.

"You dill-hole!" He yelled at Bobby but there was no way he heard him, not over all of the other boy's laughter. "Dude, why do you even have those?"

Bobby stopped laughing at once. He locked eyes with Kurt as a small grin spread over his face. "That's the beautiful part. Remember how we thought of a prank for everyone except Wolvie? I thought of one, Kurt." Bobby cackled evilly. "And when he see's it, he's gonna flip-"

A deep, rough voice suddenly interrupted. "What's that, Snow cone? You really think _this_ is funny?"

Both boys swung around in horror. Behind them Wolverine stood only five foot seven but somehow, in that moment, he seemed to be growing taller, inch by inch...He glowered at them, feet braced apart, one arm dropped to his side, his fist clenched. The other arm was raised and one of his claws was extended. On the end of said claw dangled a very lacy, very red, very, very feminine thong.

The realization of what Bobby had done struck Kurt. It was horrible. It was so wrong. It was _genius_. And it was all that Kurt could do to keep from bursting into hysterical laughter on the spot. On the other hand, he also wanted to pee his pants because of the look he was receiving from Wolverine.

"Bobby-" Kurt said in a strangled voice, fighting to keep his amusement from showing. "Did you exchange all of his underwear for women's thongs?"

Wolverine shifted his gaze from Bobby to Kurt in one, terrifying instant. "Don't try to play it off like you weren't in on it too, elf. Your guilt is written all over you."

"But I didn't-"

The thong was flung over Wolverine's shoulder as he tossed it away. He looked madder than he had in a long time. "Get ready to pay."

For all the bravery the two boys showed right then, you never would have guessed that they were two of the X-men, protectors of mankind and keepers of peace. They both yelped at the same time and then ditched each other, Bobby taking off in the opposite direction of Wolverine and Kurt teleporting into a downstairs hallway.

It was no matter that Wolverine was upstairs and Kurt downstairs. The fuzzy dude knew that he had to hide, and that he had to hide quickly. It was his only chance for survival. He sprinted down the hallway and then opened the first door he came to. This was just a closet but he could hide out in here for as long as he needed to, or at least until Wolverine found him and he could teleport somewhere else to spend the day hiding.

But as soon as Kurt jerked the door open, a horrible sight met his eyes. This was worse than Wolverine's scary and intimidating look. This was worse than Wolverine's underwear. This was his one and only sister, Rogue with a certain Cajun man attached to her face.

They were glued to each other, stuck in a fierce lip-lock that made Kurt's stomach roll unpleasantly. All he saw was a lot of tongue and a lot of groping...and they hadn't even noticed that he had opened the door on them.

"Excuse me!" He said in a voice that betrayed how nauseous he was suddenly feeling.

Both of them jumped apart quicker than he could blink.

"Oh hey, Kurt," Rogue smiled as if nothing was out of the ordinary. "What's up?"

Narrowing his eyes, Kurt slid his gaze over to Gambit. The man didn't look at all ashamed of himself.

"What the crap is going on?" Kurt asked, his voice much shriller than he ever remembered it being before.

Gambit and Rogue looked at each other, then at Kurt, then at each other, then at Kurt, then in separate random directions and then back at Kurt. Rogue opened her mouth to say something, but a sudden crash and a yell from upstairs stopped her.

"What was that?" She asked worriedly, but Kurt, having recognized Bobby's voice and fearing for his own life, ignored her and jumped into the closet with the two of them, pulling the door closed behind him.

It was pitch black in here and they were all crammed uncomfortably together.

Kurt, feeling as though his last shred of dignity was now lost, asked in the most normal voice he could muster, "Is there a light in here?" To which Gambit replied by simply lifting a hand and pulling the string above their heads to cut the light on.

The swinging light bulb overhead cast light over them and Kurt was able to take in his surroundings. They were so jam packed in here that Gambit was uncomfortably standing halfway on a bucket while his other leg pressed against Kurt's. Rogue, whose mouth was red and swollen, was squished under a shelf that held various cleaners of all kinds.

"What's going on here?" Kurt asked again. "Why are you with him?" Unable to move his arms, he cocked his head back at Gambit. "I thought you hated him! And, wait a minute..." He drifted off as another thought struck him. "HOW ARE YOU TOUCHING?"

"Uh-" Rogue bit her lip. "Look Kurt, I'm sorry, I know this is a shock and I promise that I'll explain the whole thing to you later. Just please, please, if you love me at all, DON'T TELL WOLVERINE."

"Why would I-?"

"And don't tell Kitty." She added quickly. "She'll tell everyone."

Well that was a different matter. There was no way he would ever tell Wolverine, not even on a day when the man wasn't out for his blood. He was far too protective of Rogue and since the Cajun had joined the team he had hated his guts and made no secret about it. But Kitty was different. Not only was she his best friend, but she had this way of getting things out of him. Most of the time all she had to do was smile...and do that little twirly thing with her hair...and look at him with those big blue eyes...

"Oh, mon ami," Gambit's teasing voice said in his ear. "And you were judging moi."

Kurt didn't understand what he meant by saying this, but before he could ask, Rogue had shot Gambit a look and then continued talking to Kurt.

"Please Kurt, I'm askin' you as your sister—please keep this to yourself."

He sighed in defeat, his shoulders drooping. Rogue always knew that playing the sister card won him over. "Ok but...I can't keep this a secret forever."

"I know," Rogue beamed at him, "We're going to tell everyone after the holidays. I don't want to bring stress on anyone during Christmas..."

"All right," Kurt relented. "I'll keep it a secret."

* * *

><p>Ten minutes later, Kurt felt safe enough to leave the safety of the closet. He kept a close eye on Remy and Rogue as they left and parted ways, making sure that he saw them go in opposite directions before he headed for the kitchen. He walked carefully the whole way there, trying not to make too much noise as he walked and peeking around corners before he turned them to make sure that Wolverine was no where in sight.<p>

When he felt for sure that he was safe, he darted into the kitchen and shut the door behind him. He was met by the sight of Kitty, who was covered from head to toe in flour but looking happy, and Ororo, who was putting a turkey in the oven and appearing to be very stressed over something.

"Hi Kurt!" Kitty greeted him happily.

"Hi Kitty..." He looked her up and down. "Why are you covered in flour?"

"I'm making a cake!" She pointed to a bowl on the counter that was also covered in flour.

Kurt eyed it uneasily, remembering all too well the other experiences that he'd had with Kitty's cooking. "Is there supposed to be that much flour?"

"Um, I don't think so..." Kitty picked up the cookbook in front of her and bit her lip in thought. "I think I'm supposed to butter the cake pans with it."

"Kitty," Ororo interrupted. She had come over and was pointing over Kitty's shoulder at the recipe book. "You're making a bunt cake. You don't need cake pans, just one specific pan. And you don't need flour at all."

"Whoopsie." The younger girl blushed slightly at her mistake. "Ok, I guess I'll start over..."

Sighing, Ororo left the room. As soon as the door shut behind her, Kitty stopped cleaning up the mess on the counter and swung around on Kurt.

"What are you hiding?" She asked suspiciously. She looked him up and down, as if she could see his secret printed out on his shirt.

"I'm not hiding anything." He said quickly.

Her eyes narrowed. "Then why did you say that so quickly?"

"I..." He trailed off, trying to think of something to tell her. He was hiding quite a few things from her this morning, but which one was she seeing written on his face? The fall in his bedroom? Wolverine's thongs? Remy and Rogue's secret affair?

"Come on, Kurt," she pleaded. "Tell me. Please?"

He looked at her big blue eyes, her kind face covered in flour, and her ponytail swinging behind her and he found that it was impossible for him to say no to her. If he refused to tell her anything, he couldn't stand the look of disappointment she would give him...

"You were right, I should clean my room because I tripped on some of the mess this morning and got hurt and then I came out and turns out that Bobby replaced all of Wolverine's underwear with thongs and now he's coming to kill me because he think I did it." He blurted all of this out very quickly, but Kitty seemed to take it in. "Oh, and I walked in on Gambit and my sister making out."

Kitty gasped dramatically and her hand flew to her heart. "_WHAT?"_

"Yep." Kurt nodded.

"I knew it! I like, knew it! And when I confronted Rogue about it the other day she acted like I was crazy..."

"But Kitty," he said quickly. "Don't tell anyone, ok? They told me not to tell anybody but I have so you can't let them know."

"Oh, of course. I won't tell anybody."

"Ok," he said, feeling relieved. "Good."

* * *

><p>The morning went by slowly and it was evident to Kurt that everyone was a just a tiny bit more crazy than usual. He hadn't seen Gambit and Rogue again (thankfully, he didn't think his stomach could take it), but he did run into Tabitha, who flirted furiously with him, causing his face to go up in flames. For the first time in his life, he had been thankful that he was covered in blue fur. Around lunch time, he and Bobby found each other and went ahead with the prank they had actually planned together...stuffing Scott's closet full of marshmallows. They threw a whoopee cushion under Jean as she went to sit down and it sounded like she let a big one rip.<p>

"Oh dear." Professor had said as Jean glared at them.

He helped Kitty a bit with her cooking-

"Hey, is the white stuff, sugar?" She asked him, to which he replied, "MMYesf," through his mouth of oatmeal.

He managed to evade Wolverine over and over again as his insane teacher attempted multiple times to catch him. Then, as if the rest of the activity going on around the house wasn't enough, he had walked into the rec room to find Piotr sitting on the couch and avidly watching the Christmas parade. Strangely, as soon as Kurt walked into the room, the large Russian clumsily fumbled with the remote before he quickly switched it to a (much more manly) football game.

Kurt wisely kept his mouth shut before he teleported back upstairs in the living room.

And that was when the very stressed and very harassed looking Ororo found him.

"Oh Kurt, thank God it's you." In an uncharacteristic move, she grabbed the front of his shirt and spoke to him quietly, sounding very desperate. "We have a problem."

"I didn't do it!" The blue boy said quickly. "It was all Bobby's idea, I swear!" He was such a liar.

Ororo narrowed her eyes at him suspiciously. "That's not what I meant."

Kurt laughed nervously, all the while mentally slapping himself on the forehead. "Oh, then uh...what did you mean?"

The white-haired woman stared at him for another moment, debating on whether or not she should attempt to get the truth out of him. Eventually she decided against it, instead opting for what she had originally approached him to say. "We have a problem." She sighed and gently let go of his shirt, but staying close to him. "We have a VERY big problem."

"Which is...?"

She looked very pained by this question, but answered him anyway, though her voice sounded strained. "We forgot to get Charles a Christmas present."

For a moment he just stared at her. Then what she was saying finally registered. They forgot to get Professor X a Christmas gift. They forgot to get a Christmas present for the man who fed them, sheltered them, and showed them more love and understanding than anyone had ever shown them before.

"Wow Miss Ororo...that's jacked up."

"Yes it is." She agreed. Reaching into her pocket, she said, "and that's why I'm putting the burden on you to find him something," before she promptly put a wad of cash into his hand and disappeared before he could refuse.


	2. Kurt's Shopping Trip

Wolverine trying to kill him was scary. Gambit sticking his tongue down his sister's throat was scary. Kitty cooking was scary. The fact that they had completely forgotten to get Professor X a Christmas present was scary. But up until this point, Kurt would have to say that his day was A-okay. But now...Now he was fricken terrified.

He had to find a present for Professor X. So he went shopping. On Christmas Eve. To Wal-mart. With Kitty.

In all honestly, Kurt would have to say that he would have preferred being nailed to a tree rather than endure this torture. This was one of the most frightening experiences of his life, and he was saying this _after_ he had seen his mother-turned-stone pushed off of a cliff and essentially murdered by his sister. Family get togethers were priceless.

But now was not the time for fond-cough horrifying-memories. Now was the time to shop.

What seemed to be a BILLION people in the store along with them rushed around them, grabbing items, jostling other carts, and literally fighting over the last of whatever it was that they were trying to buy.

Kitty stood very close to him, keeping a tight hold on his arm so that she wouldn't be swept away with the sea of shoppers. Suddenly Kurt didn't mind shopping so much.

Until two old guys got into a fist fight over the last Twilight book on the shelf and knocked over several displays. Then he was ready to leave again.

"Uh...Kitty, let's hurry up and find that gift." Kurt said quickly as he pulled them out of the way of the two men who were now rolling around on the floor, completely oblivious to the fact that another woman had picked up the book and was now standing in the mile-long line.

"Right," Kitty agreed, nodding and sending her ponytail bobbing behind her. "But first, I need some flour..."

"Flour?" He questioned. "But Ororo said that you didn't need any."

"Oh...that's right."

They walked off in a random direction and while it was still crowded, it was bit unnecessary for Kitty to keep holding onto him the way she was. But she didn't let go and Kurt's heart beast faster for some unknown reason. Unknown to Kitty at least. Kurt knew _exactly_ why his heart always reacted to Kitty the way it did.

She wore funky perfume. It did something to his whole circulatory system.

"What should we get him?" Kitty asked and Kurt jumped at feeling her breath on his ear. Not in a good way though. He hated feeling people's breath on him. It didn't matter that it was Kitty's breath and that it smelled exactly like a clean mouth should—that being toothpaste—and it came from past her lips that were pink and...and a little dry and...some other poetic crap that he was too lazy to muster up the thought for.

"Something cheap. Ororo only gave me a twenty."

"Well there's _plenty_ we could get with that. You just have to know how to like, stretch your money while still being generous. Like, for example, let me tell you about when I bought this sweater..."

Kurt completely zoned her out as they continued walking, grunting and nodding occasionally to feign listening.

The trip turned out to be much, much worse than he had imagined that it would. The store was wiped out. The shoppers were crazy. The employees were rude. Kitty clung to him constantly and this made his head dizzy for some reason.

It was probably that stupid perfume again.

Finally he just gave up and picked up the last two things left that they could find. A funnel and a box of honey buns. He gave the rest of the money to the Salvation Army since the bell ringer harassed him as he walked out the door and then glared at him evilly when he started to walk by him without putting anything in the bucket.

He thought he was finally free to go home and crawl into his bed, curl into a ball, and weep for the rest of the day when Kitty decided to assault him with her big blue eyes again.

"Kurt," he turned to him when they got home and he was just about to get out of the car. "Will you drive me somewhere else?"

He groaned, not pleased by her request but unable to resist her all the same. "Where and why?" He grumbled.

She beamed at him and he couldn't help but smirk just a little. "I made this cake. I wanted to bring it over to the Brotherhood house."

For the first time ever, Kurt felt a little sympathy for the Brotherhood.

"And..." Kitty continued, "I wanted to see Lance."

Kurt hoped the Brotherhood house and everyone in it blew up.

"Fine." He sighed.

"Okay, I'll like, go get the cake!"

On the way over, Kurt listened with a drooping heart as Kitty talked of Lance, her current relationship with Lance, that they had broken up (Kurt perked up), that they had gotten back together (Kurt sulked), that he had been ignoring her calls lately, and that she hadn't seen him in over two weeks.

"And that's what he did the last time we broke up." She chewed worriedly on a thumb. "You don't think that's what he wants do you, that he wants to break up again?"

"I think he's no good for you." He said in his most nonchalant voice. "You should dump him."

Kitty sighed in annoyance. "Kurt...you've been saying that for years..."

"But it's true." He pressed. "You would be suited to someone more..."

"Blue?" She asked, grinning.

And that's when he wrecked the car.

He jumped at her teasing and jerked the steering wheel. The car's tire hit some ice and they started sliding, turning sideways. Kurt, not remembering the part in the written driving test where it tells you NOT to put on the brakes in this situation, hit the brakes and they skidded even further, tires squealing, both of them screaming and finally they stopped when they flew into a stop sign.

How fitting.

Now the silence in the car was loud, neither of them daring to believe that they had actually come out of that alive. They both turned to each other at the same time, eyes wide, mouths hanging open in horror.

And that's when they both busted out laughing.

…

Kurt was thankful that crashing into a stop sign didn't even put a scratch on Professor X's car. Kitty was just thankful that they were finally there, alive and safe, though aching from laughing so hard.

She jabbed the doorbell of the Brotherhood house and heard it ring from the inside. No more than two seconds passed before Wanda, looking unapproachable as always, opened it and greeted them graciously like the happy, loveable, er, person that she was.

"What?" She grunted.

"I brought cake!" Kitty said cheerily as she pushed her way inside.

Wanda, who had clearly never experienced Kitty's cooking before, brightened a little as she saw the cake holder in Kitty's hands. "Oh, um...thanks."

"You're welcome." Kitty smiled happily. "And Merry Christmas!"

"Sure, yeah." Wanda took the cake from her and walked into the next room.

"I'm just gonna go see Lance," Kitty told Kurt as he walked in and closed the door behind him. "I'll be right back."

Kurt had known Kitty long enough to know that when she said she would be right back, it meant that she would be back in six hours. So he felt it necessary to hurry her along.

"Don't be too long," he rubbed his stomach. "I'm hungry."

"Eat some cake!" She called over his shoulder as she ran up the stairs.

He would rather stay hungry.

Now she was gone and Kurt felt very out of place. All he wanted to do was go home and curl into a ball and cry but instead, fate had cursed him to go to Wal-mart and crash into stop signs. And now-

Kurt's thoughts halted as a short, yellow-eyed _evil _someone walked into the foyer.

Toad halted his steps and both boys tensed as they stared each other down. Kurt refused to blink. No matter what, he would not let his arch-nemesis win this round. Toad wasn't blinking either, of that Kurt was sure, even though his eyes were starting to water and his shape was becoming blurry.

"Toad." He said coolly, rolling the name off of his tongue as if it were disgusting. And it was. It really was.

"Nightcrawler." Toad answered back just as icily.

The air was tense, it crackled with suppressed hatred and a competitiveness that rivaled two something or the others that competed against each other at some point in time in the history of the world.

His dislike for Toad grew in those two seconds where the intensity in his glare-stare became much heavier. He had to say something witty and demeaning and fast! Before the other boy could beat him to it. He had to-

Wanda walked through the foyer and into the living room, carrying the cake and a knife. "Will you two idiots just drop it? No one cares."

And just like that the spell was broken. For now.

Both boys walked into the living room, Toad casually, and Kurt feeling awkward. He was greeted by the sight of Fred and Pietro sitting on either side of the coffee table, playing chess. It didn't look like Fred was having much fun at this, or even like he knew what was going on. He stared confusedly at the board and randomly moved pieces, not knowing that Pietro was picking his players off of the board one by one every now and then in his lightening speed.

Kurt clicked his tongue impatiently as he waited for Kitty, watching as they cut the cake and glanced around the room. Was this where they lived? Kitty had told him that it was a shabby place but he hadn't known that it was this bad. Every piece of furniture was either broken, ripped, or stained or all three. The floor could have used a good scrubbing and the walls could have used a good replacing. Over in the corner, almost out of sight, was a shabby looking droopy, foot-high Christmas tree. There were no lights and not one decoration on the branches. Kurt was trying very hard not to feel bad for them...

"ACK!" Four choked voices all spit out the cake at the same time. Wanda just glared at the remaining cake, Toad continued to choke and cough, Fred stared at what was left in his hand for a moment before shrugging and putting the rest into his mouth, and Pietro wiped his mouth with the back of his hand while swiping two more of Fred's pieces when he wasn't looking.

"Wow," Wanda glared at Kurt. "Where did you buy that? It tastes like burnt chalk and hairspray."

"We didn't-" Kurt started to say that Kitty made it before he caught himself. He didn't want to embarrass her. Speaking of whom, it sounded like she was coming down the stairs.

"Ah," Toad, no longer choking, smirked at him, "your girlfriend _made it_, didn't she?"

Kurt gritted his teeth. "Yeah, she went to the trouble to make it for you so shut-up."

"OOO," Toad grinned evilly, "so the bad cook _is _your girlfriend. Does she know that you LOVE HER?" He proceeded to make kissing noises at him, and Wanda stared at him in disgust.

Kurt turned red and quickly backed out of the room, not because he was backing down, but because he heard Kitty coming and didn't want for her to hear Toad's load mouth.

"Oh, hi Kitty!" He said nervously, hoping she hadn't heard. "Are you ready to...Kitty?"

Kitty, her lip trembling and her eyes watering rushed past him and out the front door, leaving behind a stunned Kurt.

Slowly he followed her, ignoring the kissing noises Toad continued to make at his back as he walked out into the cold. He nearly tripped over Kitty who was sitting on the front stoop, her head in her hands. But he caught himself just in time, feeling grateful that Toad hadn't been out here to see that.

"Kitty?" he asked again gently. "What's wrong?"

Silently she lifted a hand without looking at him. There was a piece of paper in her fist and he took it, unfolded, and read what appeared to be a letter from Lance to the other members of the Brotherhood.

_Jerks, _

_I'm leaving. It's none of your business where I'm going, and I'll come back whenever I feel like it. DON'T TOUCH MY STUFF._

_-Lance_

"Wow...his handwriting is atrocious." Kurt tried for some humor but to his horror, Kitty burst into tears at his feet.

Instantly he dropped to sit next to her, sliding an arm around her shoulders and saying softly, "Hey now, don't cry, Kit-kat. He's not worth it."

But Kitty ignored him and continued crying.

"I know," he tried again, "Why don't we go destroy his room?"

"Why does he do that, Kurt?" Kitty sniffled. "Am I not good enough for him?"

"You know what would make you feel better? Writing some very mean and very inappropriate things on his wall in permanent ink."

"Kurt..." She looked at him with tear-filled eyes and her lips twitching.

"Or, we could leave a little surprise on his pillow, if you know what I mean."

Her lips curved in a full blown grin and Kurt silently applauded his own awesomeness. That is, before it dropped two seconds after it had appeared.

"I'm ready to go home, now." She sniffled and stood up. "I can't be anywhere that reminds me of him."

"Right." He stood too and followed her to the car. "Are you sure you don't want to leave that surprise? If not on his pillow then maybe on Toad's?"

She smirked briefly at him as she got into the car. He followed her but hesitated before turning the ignition on. She was busying herself with wiping her eyes and checking her make-up in the mirror.

"Are you sure you're okay?"

"I'll be fine." She said quietly without looking at him. "Let's just go."

…

Once they were home, Kitty looked and acted as though everything were completely normal. Looking at her, you couldn't tell that her boyfriend had just essentially dumped and abandoned her. She was her normal perky self and Kurt, thinking that girls were the strangest creatures on the planet, felt a little better.

He thrust the crappy gifts into Ororo's hands and then teleported upstairs before she could berate him over getting something so cheap. He finally thought he was free and was skipping happily towards his room when Bobby grabbed him from a closet and pulled him in.

"Hey! What are you-"

"SSH!" Bobby shushed him and opened the door a crack. "Prank number two is currently underway. Watch and enjoy."

Kurt ducked underneath him to look out of the crack and snickered. This closet was right across from Scott's room. Scott and Jean were currently walking to his door, chatting away and looking quite normal.

They had no idea.

They opened the door and walked in and both boys in the closet tried to stop giggling so that they could hear what was being said...

"We're not opening the gifts until later, but I wanted to give you yours now, you know, in private."

"Oh Scott," Jean said dreamily.

"Oh Scott," Kurt and Bobby both imitated in identical breathy voices.

"It's in my closet," Scott turned to the door and both boys tensed. "I'll get it right—AH!"

Scott opened the closet door and hundreds and hundreds of marshmallows came spilling out, completely burying him in a sea of white. He let out a strangled sort of scream as he went under, but Jean let out a blood curdling one as though he were being murdered before her eyes.

Finally when the last marshmallow had rolled out of the closet, one of Scott's hands was seen sticking out of the pile and twitching, and Jean was left standing in complete shock, Kurt and Bobby high fived.

"Scott!" Jean sounded panicked as she started to swipe at the marshmallows. "Scott can you hear me?" She dropped to her knees and frantically started to dig with her hands. "I coming, Scott, I'm...wait." She suddenly stopped. "Why I am doing this?" Standing, she made one simple move of her hand and all of the marshmallows flew away to reveal-

The door to the hallway closet was ripped open suddenly. Kurt and Bobby blinked confusedly for a moment before both of their gazes landed on Wolverine, who was wearing a smirk that promised retribution.

"I've got you cornered." He growled while leaning closer. "Get ready to-"

Kurt grabbed Bobby's hand and they both teleported to the kitchen.

"Supper time!" Kitty yelled as soon as they appeared.

And rubbing their ears, they were both coerced by Kitty to help bring the food into the dining room.

Twenty minutes later and the table was laden out with a ridiculous amount of food that Kurt had no doubt would all be gone by the night's end. Ororo, Kitty, and for some reason, Gambit, had completely outdone themselves with the meal laid out before them now. A giant and delicious-looking turkey was surrounded by more food than Kurt had ever seen all at once, and that was counting the time that he had gone to that Chinese buffet and ended up eating half of it.

It didn't matter that Wolverine sat right across the table from him, glaring, or that Gambit and Rogue sat a few seats down from him and both had their hands under the table, or that there was a pot of some kind of weird looking white soupy substance on the table in front of him. This was going to be a good meal. Because he fully intended to stuff his face.

Kitty, who sat next to him, spoke loudly to be heard over everyone. "Guys! You have to try the peas I made! I made them all by myself!" She said proudly.

Everyone looked a bit put off by this. There was no doubt that now they all had a little something to dread. Except for Kurt.

"Oh no," he attempted to sound upset but felt that he didn't quite manage it. "I'm allergic to peas. Sorry Kitty..." He was sincerely glad that this was true.

His inflated mood started to sink when she grinned. "That's ok, I made potatoes, too!" She pointed at the weird soupy stuff as she said this. "And a cake!" Now she pointed at a lumpy, white coated mass at the end of the table. "But I think I put too much flour on top..."

Ororo's eyes widened a bit at this. "You put flour on top of the cake?"

Kitty seemed totally unconcerned by this and nodded happily. "Well, the recipe told me to put powdered sugar on top, but we were out and I didn't want to go back to the store so I improvised. I figured that if it looked the same, then it must taste the same! Potatoes, Kurt?"

Kurt didn't have a chance to respond before she ladled a big spoonful of the potato soup crap into a bowl for him and shoved it under his nose.

"Go on, try it!" She held it up to him along with a spoon and looked at him with her big, blue eyes.

Cursing the color blue, people with eyes, and the state of Idaho, Kurt took the bowl from her and begrudgingly (while trying to look happy about it) scooped the spoon into the soup and lifted it to his mouth. He was aware that everyone was watching him, especially Kitty who was looking at him with a look of hope shining on all of her features.

He put the spoon into his mouth...

And very nearly gagged. There had to have been at least six sticks of butter in here. And something that tasted like burnt mothballs. He could almost hear Kitty now if he asked about the taste: _'Well see, I was like, cooking and stuff and the potatoes just like, didn't have a very strong smell and so I was thinking, what has a stronger smell than mothballs? So I like, threw some in there! What do you think?'_

He really hoped that wasn't true.

His eyes watered a little as he forced the liquid down his throat. This was undoubtedly the worst thing he had ever put in his mouth. And that included the time that he had brushed his teeth and then found out that Bobby and scrubbed the toilet with his toothbrush as a joke.

But Kitty was still looking at him and her eyes were still round and hopeful.

He cleared his throat in an attempt to make more of that horrid taste go down, but his voice still sounded a little strained. "That's fricken delicious."

Kitty beamed at him. "Really?"

"Yes. Here Bobby," he turned to Bobby and gave him a warning look. "Try some. And if you don't like it, I'll punch you in the face."

"Wow Kurt, that's like, a bit extreme..." Kitty gave him a strange look but Bobby didn't seem to notice what Kurt had said; he was staring in disdain at the potatoes.

Bobby was about to take the bowl from Kurt but then stopped suddenly and looked up. "I'll try it only when Wolverine does."

Kurt was surprised that Wolverine didn't lurch across the table right then and cut Bobby's head off. Instead, he showed an incredible amount of restraint on his part and sent Bobby and very tight and very forced looking smile.

"That's ok, Snow cone, I won't jump ahead before it's my turn."

"No, Mr. Logan, try it!" Kitty grabbed the bowl from Kurt and passed it to Wolverine.

It was a wonder that the man didn't burst into tears at that moment. However, three things did happen in that moment. The first was completely normal—Logan accepted the bowl from Kitty. The second thing was that as she went to sit back down, something to Kurt's right caught his eye. He looked over to see Remy and Rogue watching each other and looking...well, Kurt thought they looked constipated but he supposed that was what romance looked like.

The third thing to happen was the worst. Kitty shot him a guilty look and then looked across the table. Kurt followed her gaze to see Tabitha, Amara, and Jubilee, all watching Remy and Rogue with identical knowing grins...

Kurt paled. She had told. She had told everyone. Except for Wolverine, it seemed, seeing as no one was dead. Yet.

Rogue was going to kill him.

Wolverine looked like he was about to be sick. Kurt realized without much interest that he was eating Kitty's potatoes and telling her how good they tasted. He was so focused on this less than pleasant task that he wasn't paying Gambit, Rogue, or any of the girls next to him any attention. For just a moment, Kurt thought that maybe everything would be ok...

And then Tabitha opened her mouth.

She scoffed at the couple across from her and rolled her eyes while saying loudly. "Are you two serious? You're about as subtle as stampeding cattle. C'mon, Gambit," she smirked, "tell us, have you-"

A crash rent the air and prevented Kurt from hearing the rest of her sentence. He glanced towards the sound of the noise to see that Ororo, looking _very _innocent, had 'accidentally' knocked Kitty's cake off of the table. But this was the least interesting thing at the moment, (no matter that a small part of him felt immensely relieved knowing that he did not have to eat that cake anymore) and he quickly looked back at Logan.

He hadn't heard what Tabitha had said, but Wolverine obviously had, and apparently a few people across the table had too.

"Tabitha, that's gross," Amara said with a wrinkled nose.

Rogue shot to her feet. "I have NOT let him do that!" She vehemently denied whatever Tabitha had said.

Amara looked sicked, Rogue shot Kurt an angry look, Kurt shot Kitty an angry look, Kitty looked at her shoes and managed to look guilty, Professor X's cheeks were a brilliant shade of pink, Tabitha was smirking, Bobby was guffawing stupidly, Jean and Scott both looked at Tabitha with the same disapproving expression, and Wolverine...Wolverine looked pissed.

Wolverine's face was turning purple. A vein had appeared on his forehead and was pulsing violently, the hand holding the plastic bowl of potatoes clenched and the bowl broke, causing the white soupy substance to splatter into the air and then leak down his arm.

His eyes narrowed on Gambit. "Is that true, Cajun?" He asked in a dangerously low tone. "Are you two...?"

Kitty decided to intervene at that moment in a mad attempt to help the situation and get Kurt to forgive her for betraying him. Too bad she really sucked at these kind of things. "It is true!" She declared wildly, flailing her arms around her. "But Mr. Logan, they _love _each other! You can't get mad at LOVE!"

Evidently, he could.

The last thing Kurt saw before Wolverine dived across the table, heading for Gambit, was the splatter of Kitty's potatoes as the bowl was flung against the wall.


	3. Kurt's Secret Promise

Things did not calm down again for quite some time.

It took a lot of swearing from Wolverine, a lot of running from Gambit, a lot of tears from the normally composed Rogue, a lot of apologizing from Kurt, and a lot of potatoes on everyone before Professor X finally decided to intervene.

"Logan," he said quite casually, despite the chaos going on around him. "Come, I would like to have a word with you in my office."

Surprisingly, Wolverine followed him.

After he had growled like a wild animal, picked up a chair, and slammed it into the wall, of course.

Other than that, the whole thing was normal.

Kurt felt worse than he ever had in his life. His sister was crying and was obviously hurt. And it was all his fault. All she had asked him to do was to keep his mouth shut and he hadn't done that. He couldn't even blame Kitty for this; he had known full well the dangers of telling her about Remy and Rogue, he knew that she couldn't keep something like that to herself.

He leaned forward cautiously to apologize to Rogue but she sent him an icy glare before he could try.

"You told everyone! Why would you do that to me?" She sounded so hurt, it caused his gut to twist painfully.

It was actually Kitty who had told everyone, but even though she had gone behind his back and done something he had asked her not to, he still couldn't bear the thought that she might get hurt in all of this, too. What with Lance leaving, she had already been through enough today and if it was in his power to keep more hurt from coming her way, he would certainly do everything he could to stop it.

"I'm sorry, I was stupid," he bowed his head and stepped on Kitty's foot under the table when he sensed that she was about to defend him. "Tell me what I can do to make it better..."

Rogue's fist landed on the table, causing the dishes to rattle and the potatoes on the surface to splash. "YOU CAN GO FALL IN A HOLE AND DIE!"

He had to admire her for this. He had been thinking that he wanted to do that exact same thing.

Rogue turned on her heel and left in a huff. After a few moments of silence, Gambit pulled himself from the corner where he had been hiding from Wolverine and followed her.

It took quite a few more minutes before anyone left at the table said anything. A lot of the food had been ruined. Mashed potatoes had flown _everywhere. _Nothing was left untouched save for the turkey, the gravy, and a single pumpkin pie.

Kurt felt that most of it was on him. It dripped from his hair and stuck to his fur, sliding under his shirt and making it a very uncomfortable task to sit still.

"Well," Ororo, whose pretty red sweater was ruined by the offending potatoes, sighed wearily and leaned over the turkey. "I guess we shouldn't let this go to waste."

They all ate slowly and quietly. Wolverine, Professor X, Remy, or Rogue never came back to join them but at one point they did hear the unmistakeable sound of a motorcycle roaring to life and speeding off. Whether this was Wolverine or Remy or Rogue, they never found out.

All too soon this delightful meal was over and, feeling relieved that such a delightful meal was finished, Kurt stood and helped everyone clean up. Doing so took more time than it took for them to eat it, but Kurt hardly noticed. His thoughts were on Rogue and the fact that he had hurt her; he worried about their relationship, he wondered if she would talk to him again, if she would want to have anything to do with him again. He was so preoccupied by this that he moved mechanically as he worked, unaware of the strange look that Kitty was sending him.

He had brought in the last of the plastic cups and plates and stuffed them into the garbage when Ororo asked him to take the trash out. Nodding mutely, he did as he was asked and walked out in the icy-cold night without a coat.

The larger trashcans were all the way around next to the garage and on any normal day, he would have just teleported over there and have his chore done with.

But his heart was sad and his thoughts muddled to the point that the thought of just simply teleporting didn't occur to him. He didn't even hear the crunching sound of someone walking behind him in the snow.

"Need some help?" Kitty came around to his side and asked softly.

"Hm?"He blinked confusedly at her, wondering where she had come from.

She smiled slowly, hesitantly. "Here, let me," she nodded to the load he was carrying on his shoulder and reached out a hand.

"Oh," he realized what she wanted and moved away. "That's ok, I've got it."

Finally reaching his destination, Kurt swung the bag from his shoulder and then tossed it into the large bin. After closing the lid, he dusted his hands off and then turned back to Kitty. Her head was drooped as she stared at her feet.

Vaguely he realized that this was the quietest he had ever heard her before. He hadn't upset her too, had he? He wasn't entirely sure that he could handle it if that were the case.

Before he could ask her what was wrong, her eyes lifted to meet his and he was surprised to see a little anger in them.

"Why did you do that?" She sounded almost as hurt as Rogue had and Kurt was startled by this.

"What-?"

"Why would you stick up for me like that? You lied to her!" She accused. "You made her think that this whole thing was your fault and it's not! It's mine!"

Kurt was _very_ confused now. There was no way...did she actually _want _Rogue to be mad at her? She was seriously mad at him for taking the heat for her? As it was natural for any man, he had already been completely puzzled by anything and everything women did, but this just took the cake.

"Huh?" He questioned in a less-than-intellectual manner.

Suddenly the anger was gone and she was sniffling. "I'm sorry...you're just...so stupid..."

That was the worst apology he had ever heard.

"I just like, feel like crap," she said in a small voice. "You got yelled at and told to die because of me. I screwed everything up."

He had no reply for this. She was right; she had screwed him over and now was perhaps feeling a little sorry for it. He didn't want her feeling bad—that was the whole reason he had prevented Rogue from knowing the truth in the first place. But yet here she was now, looking like a sad little doe, her round eyes looking up at him apologetically.

They were so round...and so blue...

Before he knew what was happening, or why the mood had suddenly shifted, Kitty was a step closer to him than she had been a second before. His pulse jumped erratically and for some odd reason his mouth had gone dry...

"Thank you," she whispered and then glanced up over his head. "Hey Kurt," the corner of her mouth lifted a touch, "we're standing under the mistletoe."

He was certain that his stomach had never flopped like _that_ before. Nervously, and hardly daring to believe it, he looked behind him to the little bundle of green leaves taped to the side of the garage.

"Um, why is there mistletoe over the trash cans?" Kurt couldn't help but ask. The only person he could think that would have put that there would be Bobby, no doubt thinking that the only thing out here to kiss would be the trash. And really, he was right. Honestly, who came to take the trash out and brought along someone that they genuinely liked and would very much like to—oh wait.

Slowly he turned back to Kitty, who was looking at him expectantly. Wait—EXPECTANTLY? Expectantly as in she was expecting him to kiss her, expectantly?

The only girl he had ever kissed had been Amanda, and that was a wholly unpleasant experience that he would much rather forget. The thought of kissing Kitty was...

Too enticing. Before he knew it he was leaning closer. He was mesmerized by the little puffs of visible air coming from her mouth, by the shape of her eyes, by the way she was coming closer, and closer...He could almost count all of her eyelashes. She was staring at him so hard...

And that was what made him stop. She hadn't made a move towards him. He had been gravitating towards her this whole time, she had simply stood there and let him. Was that look she had given him really a look of expectancy? Did she _want_ for him to kiss her?

The answer to that should have been obvious. Why would **she** ever want to kiss **him**? She was sweet and bubbly and loud and beautiful, whereas he was blue and furry and covered in mashed potatoes. Simply put, she was miles out of league and he knew it.

Sighing, he took a step backwards to regain a comfortable distance once more.

"Um..." keeping his eyes trained on his shoes, he scratched the back of his head awkwardly but came back with a hand full of mashed potatoes.

The crunch of snow was all he heard before she was pressed against him and her lips were lightly touching his cheek. He stood stock-still, stunned by this. Slowly she leaned back to look him in the eyes, a delicate blush gracing her cheeks. "I just wanted to say thank you."

And then she was sinking into the ground beneath her feet and was out of his sight before he could say anything.

The winter air was still and quiet around him as he stood frozen in place. How exactly had this day gone from bad to good, bad to good, to horribly bad and then to really, really good?

Kitty had kissed him and for what? To say thank you? Mentally, he made a vow to himself. He promised that no matter what, somehow, someway, for everyday that he ever could, he would always find something nice to do for Kitty Pryde.

…

An hour later he was showered and lying in bed, staring blankly up at his ceiling. If there had ever been a day that he wished he could go back and do over, it was this one. If only he hadn't made Wolverine want to kill him. If only he hadn't walked in on Remy and Rogue in that closet. If only he could have kept his mouth shut and not hurt anyone. If he had, Rogue wouldn't hate him, Kitty wouldn't feel guilty, and Ororo's nice dinner that she had gone to all that trouble to create wouldn't have been ruined.

If only he had kissed Kitty when he had the chance. He had steadily been ignoring his growing feelings for her but after tonight they were all too apparent. His heartbeat picked up when he was around her for a reason, and it wasn't because of her perfume. He liked being near her, enjoyed the way she jabbered on mindlessly, liked the way her ponytail moved when she spoke and the way she kissed him...

Tomorrow would be different. He continued to think this as he drifted off into a peaceful slumber. Tomorrow he would make it right. Tomorrow would be Christmas. Then he could get Rogue to forgive him, tomorrow he could make Kitty like him. As he fell asleep, a strange rushing sound filled his head. It reminded him of the ocean. He liked the ocean...


	4. Kurt's Confusion

Kurt's eyes opened, eyelids fluttering in lazy contentment. He had just awoken from the most peculiar dream. The details were hazy but he knew it had something to do with the color pink, a couple of lonesome but friendly grizzly bears, and a brown something that continually swung back and forth in front of his eyes like a pendulum.

Well, now that he thought about it, maybe it hadn't been as pleasant as he had initially thought. He couldn't for the life of him imagine what had been so nice about a dream that contained grizzly bears. But no matter how hard he strained to remember the dream, the details of it drifted further away from him.

Wait. That was all too familiar. Kurt was certain that he had had that EXACT same thought process when he had woken up yesterday morning. His eyebrows came together as he stared at his clock. How odd. Never, ever, had that happened before.

It was a little freaky.

But he decided to forget it. Freaky occurrences were bound to happen more than once in one's lifetime.

As he yawned, stretched, and swung his legs over the side of the bed, he also decided to push that weird dream that he had now had for two nights in a row to the back of his mind. He couldn't remember it; every time he tried, the more he forgot it.

Hm. That seemed familiar too.

Oh well. Kurt decided to forget that too. He stood happily and went for his closet. He had only taken three steps before he stepped on a sock.

NO! Not that sock AGAIN! Kurt slipped and fell, his head hit the floor but his elbow took the brunt of it yet again. Now he lay in misery, wondering why, why, why, he hadn't picked that stupid thing up. Strange, but he had been certain that he had picked it up. Obviously he hadn't. Otherwise he wouldn't be on the floor right now.

Sighing, he picked himself up and studied his abused elbow. He had expected to find the soreness from yesterday still there, but to his surprise and puzzlement, his elbow only hurt from today's fall. There was no lingering pain from yesterday, this was all fresh.

Once again, Kurt decided to forget about it. If it didn't make any sense, he didn't want to waste the brain power in trying to figure it out.

Quickly he dressed and then made his way to the bathroom where he brushed his teeth, combed his hair, applied the necessary amount of deodorant, and smoothed the hair on his tail, all while feeling a tingling sense of déjà vu.

Ignoring the feeling, he stepped out into the hallway, now refreshed.

And that was when the underwear hit him.

He couldn't believe it. What kind of sicko would hit him with Wolverine's underwear on Christmas? What kind of sicko would hit him with Wolverine's underwear twice, one day after another? It had better not be Bobby. Kurt jerked his shoulder to get the offending material off of him, and he watched as it landed on the doorknob behind him.

He looked up just as Bobby approached him, grinning from ear to ear...

"Guess what!" He said happily.

Kurt glared. "I just got hit in the face with Wolverine's underwear? Again? Why? Why on Christmas?"

Bobby stared at him, his eyebrows coming together in confusion. "Dude, what are you talking about?"

"What do you mean, what am I talking about?" Kurt asked, starting to become annoyed with this.

"I mean that it's not Christmas and how did you know it was Wolvie's underwear?"

"Bobby," Kurt lifted a hand to rub his tired eyes. "It _is_ Christmas. And don't you remember hitting me with the same pair of underwear yesterday?"

The other boy stared at him for a long moment, mouth ajar. Finally he snapped it shut and rolled his eyes. "Whatever man; I don't get the joke. But look—I thought of a prank for Wolverine, it's hilarious-"

"What's that, Snow cone? You really think _this _is funny?"

Bobby swung around quickly with a look of guilt on his face. Kurt, feeling VERY confused, turned slowly and looked over at Bobby incredulously.

"REALLY? You did it AGAIN?" He motioned wildly to the red, lacy thong hanging from Wolverine's extended claw. "Don't you think the man trying to kill us all day yesterday was enough?"

Wolverine and Bobby both stopped and turned to stare at him as if he a grown a second head. He shifted uncomfortably under their gaze. Why were they looking at him like that? They were acting like _he_ was the one acting crazy. Surely they remembered everything that had happened yesterday. There was no way that both of them could have forgotten everything.

"Elf," somewhere under his usual gruff tone there was a hint of worry. "What are you talking about? I wasn't here yesterday."

Kurt looked from him to Bobby, then back to him. "Ooook, I get it," he laughed nervously. "You're messing with me, right? Right?" He continued looking back and forth between their confused expressions. "Is it supposed to be funny? I really don't get it."

"What I don't get is _you_." Bobby was now standing next to Wolverine. "You're acting weird."

"What!"

A look of understanding suddenly struck on Wolverine's face and for one, lovely moment, Kurt was sure that the confusion was about to end.

And then Wolverine crushed all of his hope. "Oh, I see. You're gonna play innocent, is that it? You think you can just be mister confused nice guy and I'll let you get away with _this_." He indicated to the thong still hanging from his claw. "Well lemme tell you something bub, it ain't gonna work!"

The thong was tossed over Wolverine's shoulder. "Get ready to play."

"But-" Kurt said weakly, "you said that yesterday..." And then he teleported before the older man could reach for him.

He appeared in a downstairs hallway and immediately looked for a hiding spot. It was so unfair. He really had to hide from Wolverine all over again? And on Christmas? Bobby and Kurt had played multiple pranks on him over the past two years that they had known him, but never once had he held it against them for two days in a row. Either this prank had really angered him or he was still sour about Remy and Rogue. Still, that didn't excuse the fact that neither he nor Bobby seemed to remember doing the exact same thing yesterday. That was just downright weird and the only conclusion that he could come to was that they were now playing a prank on _him_.

Even though that was most likely what was happening here, he still didn't want to take the off chance of all of this being real and Wolverine finding him and cutting his head off. So he jerked open the first door he came to, looking for a place to hide.

...and found Gambit and his sister Frenching inside.

Yesterday, this sight had made him want to barf. Today, this sight still made him want to barf. But after last night, after he had betrayed her trust and Rogue had told him to go die in a hole, he didn't think that he should express his disgust over finding them together again. His relationship with her was already fragile enough.

"Oh, uh, sorry," He averted his eyes quickly and felt his face burn under his fur. "I didn't mean—I'll just leave."

Remy and Rogue sprung apart in an instant.

"Oh, hey Kurt," Rogue smiled as if nothing was out of the ordinary. "What's up?"

"I..." he squinted his eyes as he looked closer at her face. Was that expression...guilty? She looked like she had been caught. Which she had, but...everyone already knew. They had already done this. Why was she acting like she had yesterday when he had caught her for the first time?

"Did you..." he asked slowly, sliding his eyes over to Gambit, who didn't look guilty at all. Just a little satisfied...and uncomfortable at the same time. "Am I forgiven?"

"Forgiven?" She looked puzzled. "For what?"

"For...you know..." He didn't want to say it all again, not in case she really had forgiven him already. But right now she was looking like she had no idea what he was talking about.

Really, he could live with that.

"Uh, yeah." She finally responded slowly. "I forgive you."

"Oh, good." He felt relieved, as if a big, unpleasant weight had just been lifted off of his chest.

Then they just stared at one another. Rogue still looked like she didn't quite know what was going on, but Kurt was too relieved to notice it.

"Um, Kurt?"

"Yeah?"

"Could you not tell anyone about what you just walked in on?"

This was going well. Sure it was strange that she was asking him not to tell anyone about what they already knew, but that didn't matter. Rogue wasn't mad at him anymore and that was all that mattered. Now if only he could get Kitty to look at him twice, (and not in just a friendly way), he would be one happy fuzzy dude.

"Kurt?"

"Hm?" He asked distractedly. "Oh sure, yeah. I don't know what the big deal is, but I guess I won't mention it to anybody."

Remy and Rogue looked at other with raised eyebrows.

But he didn't care to put too much thought into this odd behavior. Right now his biggest desire was to find out where Kitty was.

…

And she was in the kitchen. Covered in flour. Again. And again, Ororo was looking stressed as she put a turkey into the oven. He stopped in the doorway and stared at the scene before him.

What. The. Crap.

What was _with everybody_ today?

"Hi Kurt!" Kitty greeted him happily.

"Hi, Kitty," he responded with a little less enthusiasm. At first he thought that everyone was just being their normal odd-ball selves. But now...this was...there were no words. Weakly, he asked a question to which he already knew the answer to. "Kitty...why are you covered in flour?"

"I'm making a cake!" She pointed to a bowl on the counter that was also covered in flour.

And now he was scared. What..._what was happening? _

Was this a dream? Whoever it was that had said that you couldn't feel pain in your dreams was _wrong_, and Kurt knew that, but still, that did nothing to stop him from dazedly reaching over to touch his bruised elbow. It hurt. It actually hurt quite a bit.

So. Maybe he was dreaming. Maybe his subconscious had stored everything that everyone had said yesterday and now he was dreaming and was being forced to re-live the whole experience.

As off the wall as that sounded, it was the only explanation that he could think of that he deemed reasonable.

But even so, he didn't want to go through this whole day again. That was just...bothersome.

"Ok," he sighed to himself. "Wake up now."

Nothing happened. Nothing except that Kitty and Ororo were now staring at him.

"What?" Ororo asked. "Kurt, what are you talking about?"

"Not funny," he said warningly, completely ignoring his white haired teacher. He reached over a prodded his elbow, wincing as he did so. "Come on, wake up Kurt. Wake up."

Ororo didn't seem to find him very interesting anymore, she turned to eye Kitty and then all of flour on the counter.

"Kitty, is there supposed to be that much flour?"

"Um, I don't think so..." Kitty picked up the cookbook in front of her and bit her lip in thought. "I think I'm supposed to butter the cake pans with it."

Ororo went around to stand behind her and pointed over her shoulder at the recipe book. "You're making a bunt cake. You don't need cake pans, just one specific pan. And you don't need flour at all."

"Whoopsie." The younger girl blushed slightly at her mistake. "Ok, I guess I'll start over..."

Sighing, Ororo left the room, glancing worriedly at Kurt as she passed him. As soon as the door closed behind her, Kitty stopped what she was doing and swung around on Kurt.

"What are you hiding?" She asked suspiciously.

Kurt stood silently staring at her for a moment. If this was a dream, then he could say whatever he wanted and it wouldn't count, right?

Right.

"I love you." He blurted.

"W-what?" She stuttered, her face rapidly turning dark red.

"Since the day I met you." He added confidently. He was glad this wasn't real. Otherwise he would be scared out of his mind right now.

"Um..." And that was her only response. That was all she had to say back to him when he told her he loved her. Dream Kitty sucked.

"Yep." He nodded, wondering how she managed to make his heart race even in his dreams.

"I...well, I guess I like, love you too. As a friend," she added quickly when she noticed his eyes widen. "That's what you meant, isn't it?" She asked demurely, looking up from her feet to take in his reaction. "You just love me as a friend?"

Even if this all was just a figment of his overzealous imagination, Kurt still didn't have any desire to be rejected. Which was why he nodded quickly and agreed with her. "Oh yeah, that's _exactly _what I meant."

"Oh, good." She smiled a little apprehensively. There was a beat of silence. "Are you hungry?"

"I'll just eat some oatmeal," he said quickly, not wanting her to cook for him. He had little doubt that dream Kitty's cooking was probably just as bad as the real Kitty's was.

…

Kurt kept expecting himself to wake up. But he never did. He continually prodded at his elbow for the rest of the morning, making it hurt worse than it already had. Slowly the thought that maybe this wasn't a dream after all was starting to creep up on him. It felt so very real. He had never in his life had a dream quite so vivid.

But then the only other logical explanation could be that everyone was playing a big huge joke on him for some reason.

Because really, how could all of the same things keep happening again?

He hadn't seen Gambit and Rogue again (Though he hadn't been really looking for them), but he did run into Tabitha, who flirted furiously with him, causing his face to go up in flames. Again. And for the second time in his life, he had been thankful that he was covered in blue fur. Around lunch time, Bobby approached him and wanted his help stuffing Scott's closet full of marshmallows. But he'd already _done that. _And while the picture of Scott getting buried in marshmallows was still a happy image in his mind, the thought of going to all the trouble of setting that prank up again was not one that he enjoyed. They had torn open more than two hundred jumbo bags of marshmallows and it had taken hours to do it; it had been a lot of work.

Once again, he helped Kitty (who blushed every time she looked at him) a bit with her cooking-

"Hey, is the white stuff, sugar?" She asked him, to which he replied, "MMYesf," through his mouth of oatmeal.

He managed to evade Wolverine over and over again as his insane teacher attempted multiple times to catch him. Through everything else that was going on, he completely forgot what he would find he walked into the rec room. There was Piotr again, sitting on the couch again and avidly watching the Christmas parade again. And again, as soon as Kurt walked into the room, the large Russian clumsily fumbled with the remote before he quickly switched it to a football game.

"Piotr," he said slowly, "Can you turn it to one of the news channels?"

The large man, whose cheeks were tinted with red, quickly turned it to one of the channels he had requested without saying anything. He looked so embarrassed; he probably wouldn't talk to him again for a week.

But Kurt was too busy staring at the TV screen to care. There, down in the bottom right corner was the time and the date. It was December twenty-fourth.

He waited for himself to faint. But he didn't. That would just be too easy. Fate had decided to be cruel to him today. He sunk onto the couch next to Piotr, not taking in any details of the world around him. He felt numb and...slow.

It this wasn't a dream, and it wasn't all a practical joke (because no matter how good his team-mates could be at pretending, he was pretty sure that they couldn't mess with the time display on live TV), then what was going on?

Was he...Was this a mind trick? Had Mesmero put him under his control again? Before that thought had even fully formed in his mind his memories told him that couldn't be the case here. He had no memory to speak of when he had been under Mesmero's control, it was a just a big blank of unexplained time in his head. He hadn't known what he was doing because he had essentially been the man's puppet.

But now he was entirely aware of his surroundings. He was in control of himself and his actions. If he wanted to go upstairs and jump out of the window, he could.

Or maybe, for some really, really, really, really, really weird reason, Professor X was messing with him. This was definitely something that the Professor was capable of, but Kurt couldn't imagine for the life of him why the man would do something like this. So that option was also out.

The only option that he hadn't considered yet was the worst thing that this whole situation could be.

Real. It was all real.

Well that certainly put a damper on things.

As a troublemaker, Kurt had always found himself in some kind of mess. But this time, he was definitely in over his head.


	5. Kurt's Argument

…

As an X-man, Kurt had been trained to deal with big problems and dangerous situations. Professor X had taught him to keep a clear head and to not freak out and act too quickly. Wolverine had taught him to listen to his instincts, no matter what because most of the time, they were right. Scott had taught him to always protect his team-mates and the people he loved. And Ororo had taught him...well, Ororo had taught him how to fly a jet.

Now Kurt desperately tried to apply all of those things that he had been taught to this current problem of his.

He tried to keep a clear head and not freak out. He tried. For about two seconds. Then he had trouble breathing and his hands fisted in his hair, pulling on it a little too hard to be considered comfortable. He listened to his gut like Wolverine had taught him. His gut was telling him to lose his mind and pull his hair out. So he continued to do just that. Now he had to protect his team-mates. But how could he do that? Obviously they were stuck in this too but didn't know it. Should he tell them? Should he keep all of this to himself? They seemed perfectly comfortable and unaware of any danger. Telling them might just make him seem crazy. Maybe the best way to protect them would be to keep it from them. That was what his instincts were telling him and he already knew that he needed to follow them.

And then there was Ororo's teachings. But for the life of him, Kurt couldn't imagine how flying the jet could possibly help him out of this.

Right now he had to pull himself together. He had to _think_. There were a million reasons that this could be happening, but maybe figuring that out wouldn't help him. Firstly he had to figure out how to get out of this. Would he wake up tomorrow and start the day all over again? He could feel himself paling at the thought. What if he was stuck here forever?

No! Lesson number one was to keep your head. He had to stay calm. He had to figure out how to fix this.

But it wasn't like he had heard about tons of people having the same problem. This was new to him. This was...wait a second...Hadn't something similar happened in that Donald Duck Christmas special? Didn't Donald get stuck in the same day? Or was that Huey, Dewey, and Louie? It was! And they had gotten out of the problem by...by doing the right thing.

He slapped a hand to his forehead and groaned loudly. That was it. He really was crazy.

Standing quickly, he came to his decision, feeling more and more insane by the second. Sure he was taking his advice from Donald Duck but at this point, it was all he had. He would go through this cursed day again. And this time, he would do it right.

…

Two minutes later, Kurt realized what an idiot he was.

If re-living this day and doing it all right was what he had to do to fix this, then he had already failed. There was one major thing that he had done wrong that he couldn't undo. He had told Kitty about Remy and Rogue. He didn't want to hurt Rogue; he had regretted telling Kitty that secret the first time around. But this time he had told her because he had thought that he was dreaming. And what harm could come from telling someone something in a dream?

But if this all turned out to not be a dream, then he was in serious trouble. He had to fix it.

So with finding Kitty in mind to swear her to secrecy, he teleported up to the living room.

And that was where Ororo found him.

"Oh Kurt, thank God it's you." In what was still an unexpected move, she grabbed the front of his shirt with a desperate look on her face. "We have a problem."

"We forgot to get Professor X a gift, didn't we?" He guessed.

"Yes!" She said, surprised. "How did you know?"

"I uh, just realized."

"Right," she let go of his shirt and reached into her pocket. Pulling out some money she placed it into his hand. "I'm going to let you go get him something."

"Wow, thanks for letting me do that." He said this is an entirely sarcastic tone but she didn't seem to notice, nodding instead before she quickly ran off.

Sighing, he shoved the cash into his pocket and went to find Kitty. She was exactly where she had been yesterday when he had asked her to go shopping with him, that being the kitchen.

"Kitty," he called as he walked through the door. "I need your help."

She was sitting at the table and pouring some kind of drizzle over a bunt cake. He assumed that this was the cake that she would bring to the Brotherhood house later. She looked up as he came in and immediately her face turned red. "My help? With what?"

Why was she turning red again? That's right, she had been doing that ever since he…he…ever since he had told her he loved her. So. IF this WASN'T a dream…

Air. Air! How did you breathe it in again? How? How? HOW?

"Kurt, are you ok?" Kitty asked him worriedly.

"I'm ok." He responded in a remarkably squeaky voice that he was SURE had never come out of him before.

"Like, what's wrong with you?"

"Shopping." He squeaked again.

"Huh?"

"It's what I needed your help with."

"Really?" Instantly she brightened, seemingly forgetting his odd behavior. "What for?"

"We forgot to get Professor X a present." The more he talked the more normal his voice started to sound.

"Ok!" She clapped her hands and jumped out of her chair. "Let me get my coat and then I'll be ready!"

…

It didn't matter that he had already done this, it was still scary. Shoppers were still like wild hyenas, giggling and brutally ripping things off of shelves, off of racks, out of each other's arms…Alright, so maybe they weren't giggling, but they were still scary.

There were the two grown men fighting over that Twilight book again. Kitty was clinging onto his arm again, but this time she only had a hold on his sleeve so that she wouldn't lose him. There was his pulse racing again. There was the embarrassment he felt whenever he remembered that scene in the kitchen earlier. There was a box of honey buns and funnel, the only two things left on the shelf.

If he was supposed to do better this time, he should try to find a better gift for the Professor. But there wasn't anything else _here_. He stopped with the honey buns and the funnel in his hands and tried to think: what would Scott do? That man always had the right answer to everything. Somehow he always knew what the right thing was.

Kurt stared down at the honey buns and thought very hard. Professor X liked honey buns as far as he knew. But the problem with this gift was that it wasn't personal. It needed to be…

"Personalized!" The light bulb lit up over his head.

Kitty stared at him. "What?"

"Let's get some cookie icing and write little notes on the honey buns for him. You know, something like, 'Thank you for everything', and 'We love you'."

Kitty's face turned three different shades of red at these words.

"O-ok," she stuttered. "Great idea."

Yes. Yes it was. Kurt almost patted himself on the back. They raced over to the isle with the icing to find...one more left. And a little boy was reaching for it. He knew he couldn't teleport in public, so he ran, Kitty trailing behind him. He was almost there—so close! The little boy's hand seemed to be moving in slow motion; if Kurt just ran a little bit faster, he could get to the icing before he did.

…No he couldn't. The kid's hand had just wrapped around the small container right when Kurt skidded to a halt in front of him.

"Hi kid," Kurt tried to sound cheery. "Are you going to buy that?"

The kid, who looked to be nine or ten, turned to him, his lip curled. "What's it to you? Butthole!"

Kitty and Kurt both gaped. What. A. Brat.

"Hey!" Kurt said indignantly, never before having been called something like that in all his life. "You can't call me that!"

"Oh really?" The kid crossed his arms. "Cause I think I just did!"

Kurt had no words. No. Words.

"And oh, wait!" The kid paused. "I think—oh yeah, here it comes again! Butthole!"

Kurt gasped. He had never been so insulted in his life…You know, except for when people would look at his real face and run away screaming, 'Demon! Demon!' But at least they had some sort of reason to be mean. They were scared and really, he could see where they were coming from. But this kid was just plain out mean and for no reason at all that Kurt could see.

"Wow," Kitty said from his side, "that was like, totally uncalled for."

The kid's head turned towards her, only to look her up and down and smirk. "Hey baby, what's up?"

That was it. Call him names, insult him all you wanted, but he was not going to let some ten-year-old kid hit on Kitty and get away with it.

"Look kid, give us the icing." He tried to sound stern.

"Hm, let me think about it." The kid seemed to think for a moment. "NO!" And then he ran off, screaming, "That guy's a butthole, that guy's a butthole!" While pointing at Kurt.

Kitty and Kurt just stood there watching him run away, incredulous to the indecency and rudeness of it all.

So Kurt bought a funnel and a box of honey buns. If Professor X was upset about it later, maybe he would take comfort in knowing that Kurt had gone through hell twice trying to get it for him.

…

As Kurt drove to the Brotherhood house, he tried to think of some way that he could do better at _this_ than he had last time. He couldn't really remember what all HE had done wrong here. Kitty had gotten her feelings hurt by Lance, and he had comforted her. Surely he had at least done that right. But maybe not. Maybe he really was supposed to leave that surprise on Lance's pillow like he had wanted to.

He glanced over at Kitty as he drove. She was talking about Lance again, wondering where their relationship stood and why he hadn't called her back. He hated taking her back here just so she would get hurt again, but there wasn't much he could do about it. Telling her that Lance had left would make her cry. Telling her not to go see him would just make her want to see him even more. And he didn't want to let her go alone, either. If that happened, then his shoulder wouldn't be there for her to cry on. And as sick as it sounded, he kind of liked that she chose to cry on his shoulder.

"Remember what I told you earlier about Gambit and my sister?" He asked when there was a break in her Lance musing.

"Yes…"

"Please, please, please, please, PLEASE don't tell _anyone_. Ok?"

She blinked at him. "Yeah, sure."

"No one." He pressed. "Not one person. Ever. Promise."

"I-that's a big promise."

"Kitty!"

"Fine, fine." She said grumpily. "I promise I won't tell anybody…else."

"What!" Startled, he jerked the wheel too hard and the tire hit some ice. It spun, they screamed, they hit a stop sign. We know the story already.

"Kitty," he said as he wiped his eyes after their hysterical laughter ended. "Who did you tell?"

"I…well…" she busied herself with checking her makeup.

"Kitty!"

"I-oh fine." Sighing, she closed the mirror and turned to him, looking nervous. "I told Tabitha."

He groaned, remembering all too well that Tabitha was the one who had let Wolverine know.

"And," she continued, "Amara."

"Great," he said sarcastically.

"And Jubilee."

Kurt glared.

"And Bobby."

Kurt's eyes widened at that. He hadn't known that Bobby had been told.

"And Jean and Scott…"

His eyes widened a fraction more.

"And Piotr…and Miss Ororo."

His eyes widened _still _another fraction.

"And Mr. McCoy."

He tried to widen his eyes again but then realized that he couldn't. So he just stared at her with really, really wide eyes.

"And Professor X."

"Kitty!" He burst. "You told everyone!"

"No I didn't!" She actually defended herself and managed to sound offended by his words. "I didn't tell Mr. Logan!"

"Kitty…" He groaned and slammed the back of his head against the headrest. Now if he wanted to get this right, he would have to go to everyone once he got home and swear them all to secrecy. He might have to bribe a few of them. He might have to threaten some. One way or another, he _would_ make sure that Logan never found out about Remy and Rogue.


	6. Kurt's Second Chance

The trip to the Brotherhood house went precisely the way it had the first time around. Kurt didn't try to do anything different, because he didn't really feel like he had done anything wrong in that area. Trying to be nicer to Toad was unthinkable. He glared at him just as fiercely as before. He hadn't spoken to any of the others the first time and so he didn't the second time. The only thing that he did different was try a little harder to make Kitty feel better, but he couldn't really tell if his words had any affect on her.

When they were on the way home, Kitty had promised him that she would swear everyone she had told about Remy and Rogue to secrecy. Tabitha was the only one that he was really worried about when it came to this and she promised that she would take care of it.

It was probably due to the fact that when she said this, she turned and looked at him with round, beautiful, blue eyes (he had almost crashed the car again because he wasn't watching the road), that he agreed to not finding Tabitha himself.

Once they were home, he tossed the crappy presents to Ororo and teleported upstairs before she could say anything.

He had only walked a few steps before Bobby reached out from a closet and pulled him in.

"Let me guess," Kurt said in a hushed voice as he turned to look out of the crack of the door, "prank number two is now underway?"

Bobby snickered quietly beside him.

Kurt fell silent as he watched Jean and Scott approach the door. He was just wondering if this part of the day would be just as funny as it was before when a thought hit him. What if letting Scott get buried by Marshmallows was the wrong thing to do? What if he was supposed to stop this? What if he was stuck in this day forever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and all because he didn't stop those marshmallows from falling on Scott?

But...this was funny. It wasn't everyday that he got to see Scott caught in a marshmallow avalanche. It would be disappointing to not see this again—no! He had to think. What would Scott do? Crap. Scott wouldn't let someone get attacked by marshmallows. Unless it was the bad guy and he had a weakness for the soft, sweet treats.

Kurt knew what he had to do. He had to stop this from happening. But just as he stood up, Bobby spoke next to him in a breathy voice, imitating Jean. "Oh Scott."

"It's in my closet," Scott was saying as he reached for the closet handle. Kurt tried to move forward, but he was suddenly staring transfixed through the crack in the closet door. It would be a _crime _to stop this…"I'll get it right—AH!"

Scott opened the closet door and hundreds and hundreds of marshmallows came spilling out, completely burying him in a sea of white. He let out a strangled sort of scream as he went under, but Jean let out a blood curdling one as though he were being murdered before her eyes.

Finally when the last marshmallow had rolled out of the closet, one of Scott's hands was seen sticking out of the pile and twitching, and Jean was left standing in complete shock, Kurt and Bobby high fived. Kurt knew it was wrong, but he couldn't help it. That was still awesome.

"Scott!" Jean sounded panicked as she started to swipe at the marshmallows. "Scott can you hear me?" She dropped to her knees and frantically started to dig with her hands. "I coming, Scott, I'm—Wait." She suddenly stopped. "Why I am doing this?" Standing, she made one simple move of her hand and all of the marshmallows flew away to reveal—

The door to the hallway closet was ripped open suddenly. Kurt, already knowing who it was, grabbed Bobby's arm and teleported out of there before Wolverine had a chance to say anything.

They popped into the kitchen and—"Super time!" Kitty yelled straight into their ears.

And then they were made to bring in the food to the table.

"Kitty," he muttered quietly while he carried in a dish of green bean casserole, "did you speak to Tabitha?"

"Yep!" She said happily, setting down a lemon meringue pie on the table's surface. "She promised not to say anything."

"Good." He sighed in relief. Maybe, just maybe if this meal went right he wouldn't have to go through this day again.

They sat down and started their meal—actually started their meal this time. Everyone was forced to try the potatoes made by Kitty and the only one that had run out of the room to throw up had been Hank. But then he had come back in, swearing up and down that he had only run off because he thought he had heard the phone ring.

Kitty was thrilled with her um, 'success' and made everyone a bowl.

The flour covered cake 'accidentally' ended up on the floor again next to a very innocent looking Ororo, but Kitty surprised them by pulling out a some corn that she had made, which were badly burned and overly salted. She explained her reasons behind this—"When they burned I thought that would like, take away all of the corn taste, so I like, dumped half the container of salt in there. Is it good?"

Everyone had hacked and coughed in response.

But Kurt didn't mind. If tasting Kitty's disgusting cooking and pretending to like it made her happy, then he would gladly continue to torture himself. But besides seeing that Kitty was having a good time, he was happy that this meal was actually happening. Obviously this meant that he had done something right! Rogue wasn't hurt, Wolverine wasn't mad, there weren't mashed potatoes everywhere and—

**DING DONG! DING DONG!**

"That must be our special visitor." Professor X said happily as he directed his chair out of the dining room.

"Who is it?" Kitty asked.

Ororo started to reply, "It's-"

"Warren!" Rogue finished for her as the tall, blonde haired man walked into the room.

"Scott," Warren nodded to Scott as he stood to shake his hand. "Rogue…" He politely nodded towards Gambit. "Kitty called and told me you had a boyfriend. Is this him?"

The table grew deathly quiet at that moment. Tabitha smirked, Amara looked sickened for some reason, Piotr was trying to pretend he hadn't heard anything, Hank was looking apprehensively at Wolverine, Ororo's hand was inching towards the peas that were sitting on the edge of the table, Kurt stared incredulously at Kitty, Kitty clapped a hand to her mouth and looked as if she had just remembered something that she had forgotten, and Wolverine, not surprisingly, looked very, very pissed off.

And then mashed potatoes flew everywhere.

* * *

><p>After that, the events went nearly the same as they had before. Wolverine roared, Rogue cried and told Kurt to die, Professor X remained calm as ever, and potatoes ended up on everyone. The only difference was that this time, Warren was there to witness the occasion. He did <em>not<em> look like he was enjoying himself. In fact, he looked a little frightened and worried for their sanity.

And at last when Professor X, Wolverine, Gambit, and Rogue were gone, it was quiet.

"So…Warren." Hank said awkwardly. "Would you like some…ah…" he looked all over the table, trying to find something without potatoes on it. "Turkey?"

Warren accepted and sat down. He began to eat while attempting to ignore Kurt who glared at him the whole time.

Just when everything was going right, mister I've got angel wings and money and good looks just _had_ to walk through the door and ruin it all. Sure if he forced himself to think about it, Kurt would realize that it was more Kitty's fault than Warren's. And when it really came down to it, it was his own fault. But right now he was perfectly content to blame it on Warren. Warren…with his stupid big muscles and stupid thick blonde hair and stupid suede coat. Kitty had practically drooled the first time she had met him and Kurt still hadn't forgiven him for it.

In fact, he HATED HIM!

Fifteen minutes later, after Warren was finished stuffing his stupid face, they started the clean up process. As Kitty kept looking at him, Kurt realized that his favorite part of the day was fast approaching. Something weird was going on his stomach every time he thought about it. He figured it was gas.

Although he was looking forward to what he knew was coming (getting so excited that he was getting gassy apparently), he still couldn't help but feel blue (no pun intended) over fighting with Rogue. He had been given two chances to do this right and he had failed her both times. But tomorrow…tomorrow he would make things right. Assuming that he would be _allowed _to move on to tomorrow, that is.

Did she really want for him to die? Most people who didn't know him would say, "Oh no, no, sisters just say things like that!" But they didn't know Rogue. She wasn't the type to forgive easily, hence the reason their mother was reduced to a bag of pebbles. He hadn't hurt her as bad as Mystique had, but still…Rogue scared him just a little bit.

Ok, a lot.

As he trudged along in the cold night, he swung the bag of trash over his shoulder, this time aware of the approaching steps in the snow behind him.

"Need some help?" Kitty came around to his side and asked softly.

"That's ok, I've got it." He really hoped she couldn't hear his heart slamming into his chest.

Finally reaching his destination, Kurt swung the bag from his shoulder and then tossed it into the large bin. After closing the lid, he dusted his hands off and then turned back to Kitty. Her head was drooped as she stared at her feet.

Experiencing Kitty quiet the first time had been odd, but the second time around he realized just how much he didn't like it. Kitty talking and jabbering animatedly about anything and everything was a big part of her personality and part of the reason that he liked her so much. There was something about her bubbly voice that made him happy.

She met his gaze with angry eyes. "Why did you do that? Why would you stick up for me like that? You lied to her!" She accused.

Of course he had. It didn't matter how many times he would be forced to re-live this cursed day. Every single time he would defend her and lie for her. It didn't matter who got hurt so long as _she_ didn't. This time around he had outright lied instead of just not saying anything. He had told Rogue that Warren had misspoken—that it was Kurt that had called and told, NOT Kitty. For some reason she had believed him.

"You made her think that this whole thing was your fault and it's not! It's mine!"

Different things had happened yet she had said the same thing. How had that happened?

The anger in her eyes ebbed away as she stepped closer. "Don't you ever do that for me again, Kurt Wagner. You hear me?"

How could he not hear her? She was standing so close to him that he could count her eyelashes…

Her voice dropped to a whisper. "I can't stand seeing you take all that grief for me. You're my best friend, you know that, right?"

He nodded quietly, too transfixed by the sight of her eyes so close to his to say anything.

"And Kurt," she whispered and leaned in all the way. Her lips pressed to his in a brief, tender sweep of her mouth. "Earlier…" She blinked up at him, her eyelashes brushing his cheek. "I lied."

And then she was gone, sinking into the ground beneath him.

The silence hummed in his eardrums as he stood there, staring into space with the goofiest look ever known to man on his face. Kitty had kissed him. Kitty had _really_ kissed him. And not on the cheek this time, but a real kiss. He didn't want to let that memory go, he didn't want to forget it. So he stood there in the bitter cold and relived it over and over and over and over again until his toes were starting to go numb.

Finally he managed to make his way back inside and up the stairs in a happy daze, not noticing the strange looks he was receiving from everyone he passed. A while later he was showered and laying in bed, still with that ridiculous look on his face.

Maybe he had done something right today after all. Kitty had kissed him and…he couldn't remember what else had happened. Didn't it have something to do with mashed potatoes? Whatever it was, it could wait for later until he thought about it again. Right now he just wanted to keep reliving that moment outside.

She had kissed him…and then said that she had lied. His eyebrows furrowed in the dark as he tried to think of what she might have meant by this. What would Kitty have lied about? They had talked a lot today and she had told him lots of things. He couldn't positively say which thing she might have lied to him about.

Whatever it was, he would ask her about it tomorrow. Sighing happily, he let himself drift off, taking comfort in that rushing sound that filled his ears.


	7. Kurt's Fragile Sanity

Kurt's eyes opened, eyelids fluttering in lazy contentment. He had just awoken from the most peculiar dream. The details were hazy but he knew it had something to do with the color pink, a couple of lonesome but friendly grizzly bears, and a brown something that continually swung back and forth in front of his eyes like a pendulum.

Well, now that he thought about it, maybe it hadn't been as pleasant as he had initially thought. He couldn't for the life of him imagine what had been so nice about a dream that contained grizzly bears. But no matter how hard he strained to remember the dream, the details of it drifted further away from him.

Though it still bothered him that he couldn't remember it right off, Kurt pushed it to the back of his mind for now. After all, it was Christmas Eve today and the schedule was bound to be full.

Yawning widely, he threw the cover off of himself…and then realized what had just happened.

"NO!" He yelled and punched his pillow with all the strength he could muster…which wasn't a lot first thing in the morning. "NO! NO! NO! NOOOO!"

This could not be happening again. It WASN'T. He wouldn't let it! He couldn't do this AGAIN. He stood and stomped angrily towards his closet. It took three stomps before a sock decided to intervene. Bump went the elbow and smack went the head.

But this time Kurt took his anger out on the inanimate object, sitting up to throw it across the room and scream at it. "Will you STOP DOING THAT? YOU STUPID SOCK! I HOPE YOU BURN AND DIIIIIIE!"

The sock had no response to this.

Now with his elbow smarting and his head aching from screaming so loud right after he had bumped it, the anger slowly receded as panic set it. He drew his legs to his chest and rocked back and forth, feeling the teensiest bit crazy. He had really been hoping that all of that had been a really long and really vivid dream. But now he was absolutely sure: This was real. This was really happening. He was in a lot of trouble.

X-men lesson number one: Keep your head. He had to pull himself together now because freaking out over it wasn't going to help matters. There wasn't much that he could think to do besides what he had already assumed for himself yesterday. Or today…or today yesterday. Yeah, that sounded right.

Doing the right thing. Making things right. That's what he had to do. He had to calm down, follow his instincts, and protect his team-mates. He still struggled to figure out how flying the jet might help him out of this.

He had to do this now, and he had to do it right. If he did everything the right way this time around, maybe that would stop all of this…craziness.

He allowed himself ten more seconds of insane time, rocking himself on the floor.

Ten.

What if he didn't find a way out? What if he did everything right and still he was stuck here?

Nine.

If he wasn't already there, surely he would go insane.

Eight.

Was the rest of the world stuck in the merry go round or was it just him?

Seven.

At least there was one thing he could look forward to.

Six.

Every night he would get to kiss Kitty. But what had made her kiss him for real the last time?

Five.

And what had she lied about? Would she kiss him again tonight?

Four.

If this kept up, then for the rest of his days, Wolverine would always be trying to hunt him down and kill him. Oh joy.

Three.

Wasn't it weird that Warren had shown up to dinner yesterday but he hadn't the first time around?

Two.

Eventually he was really going to get tired of turkey and oatmeal.

One.

And now was the time to buck up and be a man. Sighing, he stood with a new determination and headed for his closet. This would be the last time he would relive this day. It was. No matter what he had to make everything right. He had wanted a second chance at this in the first place, and he got it.

Kurt froze halfway through pulling out his shirt from the closet. That was it. He had done this. The first night he had been laying in bed and he thought to himself…If there had ever been a day that he wished he could go back and do over, it was this one. That was what he had thought. He had wished so hard for it that he hadn't even realized what he was doing.

Well then. If that was the case, then he would live up to his wish. He would redo things and do them right. And he should probably try to be a little grateful for the second chance fate was giving him.

Quickly he dressed and then headed for the bathroom where he brushed his teeth, combed his hair, applied the necessary amount of deodorant, and smoothed the hair on his tail.

Feeling refreshed, he walked out into the hall and ducked to avoid the flying underwear.

Bobby appeared, frowning at him. "Dude, why did you duck?"

"Because you threw Wolverine's underwear at me." Kurt couldn't help but glare a little as he said this.

"What? How did you know that?"

"Instinct." He shrugged. "Gotta go, catch you later." And he teleported to a downstairs hallway before Wolverine showed up.

Knowing what was waiting in the closet closest to him, Kurt simply strolled on past it without stopping. Sure he already knew about Remy and Rogue and could still reveal their secret, but if their secret came out anyway and Rogue didn't know that he knew already, she couldn't get mad at him. Yes. Inside the genius mind of Kurt Wagner, it was awesome.

That still didn't stop him from shuddering a little when he heard a thump on the door. He walked faster toward the kitchen and walked in to find Ororo putting a turkey into a pan and a bag of flour falling out of the cabinet and onto Kitty's head as she tried to pull it down. Ororo didn't say anything to this, just pursed her lips together and started to look stressed.

"Hi Kurt!" Kitty said cheerily as she blinked through the flour covering her face. "I'm making a cake!" She pointed to a bowl on the counter that a bunch of the flour had fallen into.

"That's great, Kitty." He smiled slowly, wondering what she would do if he ran up and kissed her right now…In all probability she would smack him across the face, turn red, and then go into a rant, somehow incorporating the word 'like' in there fifty billion times and somehow make it sound menacing.

…She was so adorable.

He very nearly punched himself. Men did NOT use words like adorable.

UNLESS they were talking about puppies. Then how could you not use that word? Puppies were adorable.

"What are you thinking about?" Kitty asked suspiciously.

"Puppies." He said quickly.

Her eyes narrowed the tiniest bit as she studied him. "Why did you say that so quickly?" Suddenly she gasped. "You're hiding something! What are you hiding?"

He tried not to let his surprise show. Instead he attempted to merely appear confused by her question. It was hard though. How had she known he was hiding something? And more importantly, how was he ever going to keep her from questioning him about it? There had to be something that he could tell her to get her to back off. Because he couldn't let Rogue get hurt, not again.

Thankfully, Ororo chose that moment to interrupt. After putting the turkey in the oven, she came over to stand next to Kitty and looked at the open recipe book on the counter.

"Kitty, is this the cake you're making? This is a bunt cake. You don't need any flour…"

Kitty turned and they started conversing so Kurt took the opportunity to slip away and grab a poptart (he was tired of oatmeal) and warm it in the toaster. By the time it was finished, Ororo had left the room and Kitty was staring at him.

"So, like, what are you hiding?" She questioned as if she were an interrogation officer rather than his friend. "And don't try to tell me that you aren't hiding anything, I'll know if you're lying."

"I um…" he munched on his poptart to buy some time. He had to think of something to tell her… "I got you a present. A really cool one. And I'm not telling you what it is so don't even try to get it out of me."

Her hands clasped together in front of her chest and her whole face lit up. "Come on, just a little hint?"

"Nomph," he said through a mouthful of sweet, sugary goodness. "I fon't."

Drooping her shoulders, she made a '_hmph'_ sound at him and turned back to the counter. "I know Ororo said that I don't need the flour but…" she tapped her lip in thought. "I already poured this in the bowl and I don't want to waste it. So I think I'll just mix it in with the cake anyway."

Kurt swallowed his food. "But won't it taste weird?"

She rolled her eyes and then gave him a look as if he were a little child. "Flour doesn't have a taste. DUH." Shaking her head, she turned back to the counter and reached up into the cabinet.

"Now I need some sugar…" She shuffled around on the shelf. "Hey, is the white stuff sugar?"

"MMYesf," he replied through another mouthful of poptart. But then his eyes widened as he looked up and realized that she was about to add salt to the 'cake mixture'. "No!" He sprayed poptart on the kitchen floor as he yelled.

Kitty turned to stare at him questioningly. "What?"

"That's salt. The sugar is in that bag that says sugar."

"Oh." Shrugging, she put the salt back into the cabinet and pulled down the sugar while saying, "I thought it was salt since it said so. But since you said it was sugar, I thought that it must be wrong."

Kurt let out a sigh of relief. At least he had managed to avert one disaster. Now there were only a hundred more to go.

* * *

><p>The morning, for the third time, went by slowly. And this time, it was because he was being tortured.<p>

Avoiding walking into that downstairs closet in the first place turned out to be quite pointless because he ran into Gambit and Rogue again. _Three times_. The first time he was innocently going to the bathroom. As soon as he opened the door, there they were, wrapped up in each others arms and eating each other's faces. Disgusted, he teleported away before they could see him.

Tabitha spotted him about an hour later and he recognized that 'I want to be flirtatious and make you flustered' look on her face and so he ran, escaping down the hall and into the laundry room…only to find Remy and Rogue, their faces pressed together and their hands…groping…_things_.

Rogue had enough time to break away and say casually, "Oh hi Kurt, what's up?" Before he teleported away. So much for the not catching Rogue and Gambit plan.

Around lunch time, Bobby found him and wanted his help stuffing Scott's closet full of marshmallows. Kurt made up some lame excuse about how he had to help Mr. McCoy in the lab and then hightailed it out of there.

A while later Bobby found him standing in the living room. He pulled a whoopee cushion out of nowhere and threw it on the couch cushion that Jean was about to sit on. Kurt, remembering that he had to do the right thing (and being pretty sure that letting Jean sit on a whoopee cushion was in fact, NOT the right thing), leaned down quickly and swiped it away—

Only for Logan to appear and sit down on it. Reeeaaaally slowly too.

Somehow he hadn't noticed Kurt or Bobby standing there before, but he certainly did now. When the last note of the farting noise finally ended, his dangerous and beady eyes found theirs; the killing intent in them was palpable.

"Oh dear." Professor X said, clearly embarrassed by the sound the whoopee cushion had made.

Wolverine stood and then made a menacing move towards them before Kurt grabbed hold of Bobby and teleported. Once upstairs, they ran in separate directions. Kurt skidded around a corner and jerked open the first door he came to, which he knew to be a closet.

And there was Gambit, pressing his sister up against the wall and doing something to her ear with his tongue-

Kurt was pretty sure he threw up in his mouth a little bit.

"Kurt!" Rogue gasped when she saw him and Remy jumped backwards and away from her.

"Rogue." He tried not to sound too grossed out. "I won't tell anyone what I saw here; I promise. I'm gonna go now-"

"Wait-" Rogue tried to stop him but he was already gone, running away down the hall in search of another hiding spot to hide from Wolverine. But as he turned down another hallway, there he was, standing at the end of it as if he had been waiting for him.

"ELF!" He roared. "Don't you teleport-"

Kurt teleported down to the rec room. Piotr, who was avidly watching the Christmas parade, fumbled around with the remote quickly before he managed to turn to a football game. But Kurt had already sighed, rolled his eyes, and teleported up to the living room where Ororo found him, assaulted him, and then forced him into finding a gift for Professor X.

He asked Kitty to come along and she did, of course, lighting up at the idea of shopping. Instead of going to Wal-mart again, he decided to do things right this time and go to the only other place that was open. The gas station.

"Shouldn't we like, you know, go to Wal-mart or something?" Kitty looked at him as though he were crazy as they pulled up.

"Wal-mart is going to be jam-packed. It'll probably be safer to find something here." It would probably be something crappy too. But if he had to go to Wal-mart _one more time_ he was going to stab something.

They climbed out of the car and walked in. Surprisingly it wasn't very crowded, though the man behind the counter told them as they walked in that they had just missed the rush-hour crowd. That was evident just by looking at the shelves. The empty shelves. There was hardly anything here. Hardly being the important word.

There was…a jump rope. A dog leash. Some nail polish. Some very inappropriate magazines. A couple packs of cigarettes. And not surprising to Kurt at all, a box of honey buns and a funnel. And since he knew for a fact that Professor X was not a pervert who wore nail polish, did freaky things with jump ropes, walked an invisible dog, and have a nicotine addiction, he decided to go with the honey buns and the funnel.

* * *

><p>Kitty asked Kurt to take her to the Brotherhood house. Feeling that this was the right thing to do, he agreed. Now he was driving and listening to her talk about the same thing for the third time…<p>

"And I like, want to know what he's thinking, you know?"

Kurt grunted.

"But he's just so anti-social. And I'm not like that. Maybe we don't match up or something…maybe I'm trying to make something work that like, just isn't meant to." She sighed. "Sometimes I don't feel appreciated when I'm with him. Like, I see Remy and Rogue and they're not even together but he's so attentive, you know? I just like, want that thing that everyone else seems to have. I mean, we broke up a while ago but then we got back together again and he seemed like he really wanted it; I really wanted it. But now I haven't heard from him in like, two weeks. And that's what he did the last time we broke up." She chewed worriedly on a thumb. "You don't think that's what he wants do you, that he wants to break up again?"

"I think he's no good for you." He replied without taking his eyes off of the road. "He sounds like a jerk. You don't deserve that. You deserve someone who will love you and treat you like the funny, extraordinary, beautiful woman that you are, not like he might treat his garbage."

Kitty seemed to be shocked into silence. He smirked a little at the road in front of him. He had never done _that_before.

"What," she said a little shakily, "you think I should be with someone more…"

"Blue?" He said nonchalantly and shrugged. "If you like."

Silence. He forced himself to keep looking at the road. For the first time in days he hadn't wrecked yet.

"Kurt!" She said, shocked. "What do you—I mean, why are you—I mean, what's going-I mean-"

"Yes, Kitty?"

"What are you saying, exactly?"

He pressed on the brake, coming to a stop at the stop sign without crashing. When the car had come to full halt he turned his gaze to her and raised a single eyebrow. "What do you _think_ I'm saying?"

She just stared at him. He tried to keep up the cool demeanor. It was a little hard when his nerves were on high alert and his heart was pounding in his ears.

"I think you're…" she bit her lip and studied him for a moment before continuing. "I think you're asking me out."

"Hm."

"Hm? What's hm? Are you asking me out or not?"

"Why do you want to know? Do you _want_ me to be asking you out?"

She glared. "Ok, that's getting annoying."

"Hm."

"That is too."

"Ok." He turned away from her and looked both ways before pressing on the gas. She sat quietly next to him, not saying a word but he could feel her eyes on him constantly. He hoped he wasn't sweating too much. Whenever he wore his image inducer those things tended to show up better.

Neither of them spoke another word until they were there and standing on the front porch. Kitty jabbed the doorbell and Wanda being the _delightful_, happy, bubbly person she was, opened the door to greet them graciously into her home.

"What?" She grunted.

"I brought cake!" Kitty cheered as she pushed her way inside.

"Oh, um, thanks."

"You're welcome." Kitty smiled happily. "And Merry Christmas!"

"Sure, yeah." Wanda took the cake from her and walked into the next room.

"I'm just gonna go see Lance," Kitty told Kurt as he walked in and closed the door behind him. "I'll be right back."

"Right. Ok. Take your time." _I love you_ he added miserably inside of his head as he watched her run up the stairs.

Now was the time to make things right. After thinking about it all morning long, Kurt kind of had a good idea of what he might have done wrong here. All he had to do was swallow his pride and suck it up. No big deal, right?

Toad walked into the room at that moment and tension appeared and swelled, flooding into every corner, every nook and cranny. Their eyes met and an EXPLOSION HAPPENED! But not the good kind. It was the violent kind that utterly destroyed everything in its path. The fire from this explosion shot between their shared gaze and then ripped through Kurt's eyes, through his brain, down to his heart, and then into HIS VERY SOUL.

Whoa. Perhaps he was feeling a little dramatic today.

BUT THE FIRE WAS THERE! It was raging! It was crazy! He hated Toad so much! He had to say something cruel to make him PAY for his misdeeds, whatever they were because Kurt couldn't remember them at that moment because he was so consumed by-

Wanda chose that moment to walk through the foyer. "Will you two idiots just drop it? No one cares."

What was that about swallowing his pride?


	8. Kurt's Turtle Wish

Kurt followed Toad and Wanda into their dingy living room. Pietro and Fred were there again, playing chess. He had already done this twice before but he still felt uncomfortable and out of place. He also felt a little more depressed every time he came into this house and saw that sad little Christmas tree over in the corner and the fact that there wasn't one present to be seen underneath it. It was also really cold in here. Did they have heat?

He looked around and spotted one small, electric heater trying it's best to warm up the room but other than that there didn't seem to be any other source of warmth. That…was so…so…

Now was the time to swallow his pride.

"So," he scratched the back of his head and stared at the ceiling as all four of them turned to stare at him. "I was thinking…we're having a big dinner tonight over at our place, if you guys want to join."

All of them stopped what they were doing to stare, frozen at him. Toad's mouth was hanging open with bits of cake hanging out of it.

"What're you saying?" Fred finally asked.

Pietro smirked from where he sat on the floor. "I think he's pulling a Scrooge." He exchanged looks with Wanda. "You know, the Scrooge at the _end_ of the movie. I guess that would make you Bob Cratchit, Freddy."

Fred appeared to be very perplexed by this, scratching his head and hanging his mouth open, letting a little drool escape. "Duuuh…I don't know what you're saying, Pietro. I just wanted to know what he said cause I can't hear him." He dug a finger in his ear and turned in back and forth. "What did he say?"

"Never mind what he said." Wanda replied angrily in a voice that clearly said _I can't believe I live with these people_. "He thinks he can just come in here and-" she halted mid-sentence and looked at the cake in her hand with a sour look. "Why does this taste so bland?"

In the foyer behind him Kurt could hear Kitty coming down the stairs. Becoming annoyed with their negative attitudes, he tried one more time. "I just thought I'd ask. We have plenty to share, if you're hungry."

Toad finally snapped his mouth closed. "Yo, we don't take handouts from X-geeks, _Blueboy_."

Kurt really wanted to point out that they had taken the cake from Kitty without complaint but he kept it to himself. When he heard Kitty run out the front door and slam it behind her, he gave up.

"Fine." He shook his head. "Just forget it."

Without another word he teleported to the front stoop and instantly dropped down to sit next to Kitty. Slipping an arm around her shoulders, he drew her closer.

"What's a matter, Kit-kat?" He asked softly into her hair.

Silently she handed him a scrap of paper. He unwrapped it with one hand and pretended to read, instead keeping an eye on her trembling lip.

"C'mere," he sighed quietly.

And that was when the tears came. Dropping her head to his shoulder, she fisted a hand in the front of his shirt, efficiently wrinkling the material beyond repair. For some reason she didn't cry quite as hard as she had the past two times they had done this, and for that he was grateful. There was nothing worse to him than to watch Kitty cry and not be able to do much about it.

There wasn't a lot that he could do to make her feel better, but there was something. He still possessed his awesome sense of humor.

"You know…" He said once her sobbing had turned to quiet sniffles, "I bet I know where he went…He did mention once that his life long dream was to become a Vegas show girl…"

Kitty's sniffling stopped. She looked up at him with an expression that clearly said she thought him crazy. "Huh? Are you serious?"

"Oh _yeah_," he said seriously. "Would I lie about something like that?"

The corners of her lips twitched. "Kurt."

"No, really, just imagine it! Lance up on stage in a tiny little dress and high heels, feathers in his hair and glitter on his eyelids…"

Kitty dissolved into giggles but he continued as though he were completely serious.

"And I bet you he's doing that dance right now. The one where all the girls get together and kick up their legs, you know? I'm kind of glad I won't be there to see that…let's hope he doesn't forget to put on some underwear."

Kitty didn't respond. She was laughing too hard.

* * *

><p>Kitty went right back to being normal once they were home. Kurt couldn't say that he was surprised. He tossed the funnel and honey buns to Ororo when they walked in and then teleported upstairs, heading for Scott's room.<p>

He dodged the hand that came out of a nearby closet and turned to face Bobby who was still in said closet.

"Dude, get in here!" He said hurriedly. "Scott and Jean are coming this way, Scott's about to open the closet!"

"Well you know," Kurt said as he walked over to lean his back on Scott's door. "I'm not so sure the whole marshmallow closet thing is all that funny. Maybe we should-"

"What are talking ab-" Bobby stopped talking abruptly as he heard footsteps coming their way. He pulled the closet door towards him and then glared at Kurt through the remaining crack. "Tell them anything and you _pay_."

Kurt rolled his eyes and turned towards his approaching team-mates.

"We're not opening the gifts until later," Scott was saying, "but I wanted to give you yours now, you know, in private."

"Oh Scott," Jean said dreamily.

"Hey Kurt," Scott greeted him. "Can I get into my room?"

Kurt pressed his back to the door more firmly. "Well, actually, there's uh-something you need to know."

Scott's frowned. "What have you done? Or was it Bobby this time?"

"We stuffed your closet full of marshmallows." He replied without hesitation. He was sure he heard Bobby swearing in the closet.

Instead of looking upset, angry, incredulous, or all of the above, Scott scoffed at him. "Yeeaah _right_. That's impossible."

"Um, no it's-"

"Sure, Kurt," he said sarcastically. "I'm sure you _really_ went to all the trouble to stuff my closet full of marshmallows." He shook his head. "I'm _sure_ you _really_ opened bag after bag after bag after bag after bag after bag after bag after bag after bag after bag after bag after bag after bag after bag after bag after bag-"

Kurt glanced at his watch.

"-after bag after bag after bag of marshmallows and then went to all the trouble of stuffing my closet full of them. Sure."

Grinning and shaking his head, he took hold of Jean's hand and then pushed past Kurt and into his room.

"Scott, I'm serious!" Kurt tried again, his eyes widening in horror as Scott started towards the closet door.

"Scott, maybe you should listen to him." Jean said worriedly.

"Scott, maybe you should open your closet and prove him wrong!" This was Bobby, who had come out of the hall closet to stand, grinning next to Kurt.

"Scott, I wouldn't put anything past them." Wolverine growled as he walked into the room behind Bobby.

Scott decided to not listen at all…which was very un-Scott like. He opened the closet door…and hundreds and hundreds of marshmallows came spilling out, completely burying him in a sea of white. He let out a strangled sort of scream as he went under, but Jean let out a blood curdling one as though he were being murdered before her eyes.

Finally when the last marshmallow had rolled out of the closet, one of Scott's hands was seen sticking out of the pile and twitching, and Jean was left standing in complete shock, Kurt and Bobby high fived.

But then Kurt remembered that this _wasn't_ funny (even though it really was) and that he was NOT supposed to be enjoying it. He was supposed to be making things right! But it seemed as if no matter what he did, things just didn't want to be fixed.

"Scott!" Jean sounded panicked as she started to swipe at the marshmallows. "Scott can you hear me?" She dropped to her knees and frantically started to dig with her hands. "I coming, Scott, I'm...wait." She suddenly stopped. "Why I am doing this?" Standing, she made one simple move of her hand and all of the marshmallows flew away to reveal-

"Boo!" Wolverine ran up behind Bobby and Kurt and grabbed them.

They replied to this by screaming like little girls, clinging onto each other for dear life, and then Kurt teleported them to the kitchen where-

"SUPPER TIME!" Kitty yelled into their ears. "Oh, sorry guys!" She said in a normal tone when they groaned and rubbed their ears. "You shouldn't have appeared right there."

After they both thanked her for stating the obvious, and she pinched them for being mouthy, Kitty forced them into helping bring the food to the table.

* * *

><p>And now they were having dinner! They were eating! And enjoying themselves! And they were almost done! Kurt couldn't figure why Angel hadn't shown up yet. That was weird. But welcome, of course. That stupid blonde winged pretty boy was so irritating! Kurt HATED HIM!<p>

He couldn't say why.

Oh wait, Kitty thought he was good looking. That was why.

If Kurt had to be _perfectly honest_ with himself, he would say that he thought Warren was a hideous monstrosity. That was just his _perfectly honest _personal opinion.

Perfectly. Honest.

But back to the dinner. Everyone was happy eating and chatting with one another, laughing and joking. Kitty was looking at him, he was enjoying it. He sent her a smile and she returned it before looking down the table. Kurt followed her gaze to see Remy and Rogue.

Oh no. They were wearing those expressions again. That 'I'm in love and constipated because of it' expression. He darted his eyes back to Kitty and he could practically see the wheels turning in her head.

"Kurt," she said quietly. "That thing you were hiding from me earlier…what was it really? I know it's not a present because I couldn't find one under the tree. So-" she jerked her head towards him freakishly fast and narrowed her eyes dangerously, "-what is it?"

"I-uh-um-I-er-something-uh-" he frantically searched his head for something—ANYTHING to tell her to get her attention off of Remy and Rogue. But it was like his mind had been wiped blank. He couldn't think of ANYTHING. This was crazy—there had to be something he could say! Only one thing came to his mind. It was stupid. But it was all he had.

Everyone turned as he slammed his fork on the table. Pushing his chair back, he stood tall and said loud enough for everyone to hear, "I wish I was turtle!"

Since his last wish had gone so WELL, it struck him that perhaps he should be a little more careful about what he wished for. But it was all he had. And now that everyone was staring at him, he might as well go with it. At least Kitty wasn't looking at Gambit and Rogue anymore. She was looking at him…and probably thinking that he had lost it.

As if his statement wasn't weird enough, he was shocked when Bobby gasped and said, "Dude, me too!"

"Are you serious?" Rogue, who sat on Bobby's other side, asked him.

"Yeah, totally!" Bobby nodded, smiling. "Ever since I heard that story about the tortoise and the hare and the tortoise kicked his butt! I always wanted to be smart like him…"

Professor X was the only person at the table that wasn't looking at Bobby and Kurt like he was concerned for their mental health. Instead he wore his usual calm expression, even smiling a little as though he were genuinely interested in hearing what they had to say. "Bobby," he said politely, "forgive me, but I believe that a tortoise and a turtle are not quite the same. And please, don't put yourself down. You're already an intelligent young man. Kurt," he turned his attention to Kurt, who was still standing. "Please, do tell us why you want to be a turtle."

The Professor sounded so politely interested in this that Kurt felt obligated to answer him. Everyone continued to stare at him and suddenly he wished that he had never started up this weird conversation.

"Well…I um…I like the color green." It _was his _favorite color. "And they have cool shells." Kurt wished he had a shell right now. It would be great to hide from all of their stares. "And the way they move their heads really fast when they snap at you." If he could do that, then he could snap at Warren's stupid face. "And they're great swimmers." Kurt wasn't that great of a swimmer.

As he came to the end of this 'speech', he started to wonder if he really DID want to be a turtle…It wouldn't be half bad. Maybe if he was a turtle he wouldn't have to look at the constipated looks Remy and Rogue were giving each other now…or at the look of realization and excitement on Kitty's face as she watched them.

Crap.

Kitty gasped dramatically, just like she had on the first day when he had first told her about Remy and Rogue. "Oh. My. Like, GOSH!" She squealed. "Remy and Rogue are SO together! I knew it! They're in LOOOOVE!"

* * *

><p>Mashed. Potatoes. Flew. Everywhere.<p>

And now Kurt was carrying a bag of trash outside, once again brooding on everything wrong in his life. He was going insane, he was stuck in the same day, he genuinely wanted to be a turtle, his sister hated him and wanted him to go die in a hole, the girl he loved didn't feel the same way about him, and to top it all off, he was blue, furry, and had a tail.

As Kitty came outside to walk along with him, he found that he still wasn't very mad at her. How could he when she looked so sad when she knew that she had done something wrong? Once again he had taken the heat for her, letting Rogue think that he had told Kitty about them. It didn't matter that Rogue screamed at him and hated him. Honestly, that was the least of his problems right now…

"Why did you do that?" Kitty asked him an angry, hurt voice. "Why would you stick up for me like that? You lied to her! You made her think that this whole thing was your fault and it's not! It's mine!"

Wordlessly he swung the bag of trash into the can next to him and then moved to stand in front of her. "Kitty…"

Suddenly the anger was gone and she was sniffling. "I'm sorry...you're just...so stupid...I just like, feel like crap," she said in a small voice. "You got yelled at and told to die because of me. I screwed everything up."

If only she knew.

There was that familiar crunch of snow—and she was a step closer to him. His heart started to pound into his ribcage. Here it was; his favorite part of the day. Every time it was different and every time it made the whole day worth it. What was it she had said last time that had left him confused?

Oh yeah.

"Kitty," his voice shook slightly and he blamed it on her close proximity. "Just out of general curiosity, have you lied to me about anything lately?"

"Lied to you? No, not that I can remember…"

So it must have been something she had said on THAT specific day. But what had she said on that day that was different from the other times? It might have been—no, he couldn't think about it now because Kitty was—

"Kurt," she whispered when she came to within an inch of his face. His breath hitched as her lips softly touched his cheek. Slowly she lifted her eyes to meet his. "If you had asked, I would have said yes."

And then she was gone, once again sinking into the ground at his feet.

* * *

><p>Kurt lay in bed and stared up at his ceiling with one thought in mind.<p>

Kitty was weird.

Not to mention utterly confusing. She would have said yes if he had asked _what_? He couldn't remember almost asking her anything…and what had she lied to him about? Today she had said that she hadn't lied but yesterday she had said that she had.

But besides Kitty confusing him to death, he had bigger problems. He had relived this day for the third time now and he didn't feel like he had accomplished anything. But he had _tried_. Every time he had attempted to redo his past mistakes, it was like fate stepped in and prevented him from doing so. Every time the whole thing had gotten worse or just as bad as it had the first time around. If he woke up tomorrow to the same day again, he wasn't sure what he could do seeing as no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't fix things.

He would think about it tomorrow. He would have to; he was so tired and was drifting off already. A familiar rushing noise filled his head…His other worries forgotten, he just hoped that he wouldn't wake up tomorrow as a turtle…


	9. Kurt's Mistake

Kurt's eyes opened, eyelids fluttering in lazy contentment. He had just awoken from the most peculiar dream. The details were hazy but he knew it had something to do with the color pink, a couple of lonesome but friendly grizzly bears, and a brown something that continually swung back and forth in front of his eyes like a pendulum.

Well, now that he thought about it, maybe it hadn't been as pleasant as he had initially thought. He couldn't for the life of him imagine what had been so nice about a dream that contained grizzly bears. But no matter how hard he strained to remember the dream, the details of it drifted further away from him.

Though it still bothered him that he couldn't remember it right off, Kurt pushed it to the back of his mind for now. After all, it was Christmas Eve today and the schedule was bound to be full.

And STUPID!

He rolled over and screamed into his pillow. It was the same day again. It was the SAME DAY AGAIN. It was the SAME. FREAKING. DAY. AGAIN!

It was official. Kurt Wagner hated his life.

He _really_ wanted to weep right now.

But he couldn't. X-men lesson number one: Keep your head. Stay calm. But he had already done that and it hadn't worked. Maybe Professor X didn't know what he was talking about after all. That was an odd thought, one that he had never thought of before. Professor X was so smart, he usually knew everything and he had an answer to every question. He was—

Kurt lifted his head from the pillow as the answer struck him.

Professor X. He would know! He would know what was going on, and how to fix it. That man knew everything,_everything_! If there was something to be known, Charles Xavier had the answer in his shiny bald head. If Kurt were to go to him now, and explain the whole thing, maybe they could figure it out before this day ended and the same day began again tomorrow.

Yes. This was it. This was the end—Kurt had finally figured it out. With a new determination, he flung the covers off of himself and stood. He took a step—but then stopped quickly and looked around. There was that sock, sitting oh-so-innocently on the floor in front of him. It thought it was so smart, trying to trip him up again! It was just sitting there with that smug look on its heel!

Well it had another thing coming!

Kurt walked around it.

And then he cackled gleefully.

And then quickly cleared his throat and tried to tell himself that he wasn't going crazy.

Flinging the closet doors open, he dressed as fast as he could. Once finished he turned and strode towards the door—and then slipped on the sock and fell to the ground.

He slowly counted to ten as he lay on the floor, trying to ignore the throbbing on his elbow and the dull ache in his head. Then with a hearty glare towards the satanic sock, he jumped to his feet and ran down the hall to the bathroom where he brushed his teeth, combed his hair, applied the necessary amount of deodorant, and smoothed the hair on his tail.

Then he teleported to the hall outside Professor X's study. He knocked on the door and waited for a response.

"Come in."

He opened the door to find Charles Xavier sitting behind his desk, his hands folded neatly on the surface and a steaming cup of hot chocolate sitting in front of him. It was almost as if he had been waiting for him. Kurt looked around uncertainly, thinking that perhaps he had been waiting for someone.

"Hi Professor."

"Good morning, Kurt."

"Were you waiting for someone?"

"No…"

So he just sat there staring at his wall. Maybe this was his secret; this was how he became so smart. By staring at the wall.

"Please, have a seat," Charles gestured to a chair in front of him and Kurt sat. "Would you like some coco?"

"No thanks…I need to talk to you."

"Yes," he nodded. "I believe I know what you came here for, Kurt."

Kurt's eyes widened. "What? You KNOW?"

"Of course. I've known all along, I just didn't want to say anything."

This was unbelievable. Professor X had known everything that was happening all this time? Kurt was more than a little insulted. "But…why wouldn't you tell me?"

The older man gave a little shrug. "It doesn't bother me."

Kurt's mouth moved wordlessly. It didn't bother him? How? How could it NOT bother him? "Professor..." he said slowly. "It bothers me. A LOT. I don't understand. Why don't you care?"

"I'm perfectly happy with everything I have now. I don't need anything else." He smiled at Kurt's bewildered look. "I have all of you, and my X-men are the most important things in the world, to me at least."

These heart-warming words were met with silence. Something here wasn't adding up. He was starting to suspect that he and Professor X were talking about two different things…

"What are you talking about, Professor?"

"It's alright, Kurt, really." He said soothingly. "I know you all forgot to get me present."

"Uh…That's not what I was going to say." But now that he knew Professor X had known this all along, he felt even more guilty about getting him a funnel and honey buns.

"Oh really? Then let's just forget—"

"Wait. How did you know we forgot?"

"Ah, well." Kurt was surprised to see that he was looking a teensy bit guilty. "Ororo's thoughts are very loud…"

"_Professor_!" Kurt gasped in a scolding tone. "You were reading everyone's thoughts to hear what your present was, weren't you?"

"Of _course_ not."

"Professor!" he said warningly.

"Oh, alright, I admit, that is what I was doing." He said guiltily. Quickly he changed the subject. "Now, what was it that you wished to speak with me about?"

He could have pressed this matter (he really wanted to) but since they hadn't gotten the man anything in the first place, Kurt felt that teasing him would be unfair. Instead he heaved a deep sigh and tried to become serious again. Right now he had to tell Professor X everything. The story would sound weird beyond belief and completely made-up, but if there was one person that Kurt knew who wouldn't think he was crazy after telling this story, it was Professor X.

Five minutes later, after Kurt had told him everything, Professor X was sitting behind his desk and looking at him like he was crazy.

But he didn't say anything. His incredulous expression became one of concern and then after another moment, he brought his hands up in front of him, touched his fingertips together, and looked to be in deep thought. Kurt said nothing. He didn't want to disturb him, even though he was dying to know what he was thinking.

He hadn't accused him of lying, not once. He _had_ accused him of being mentally retarded (with his expression only, of course), sure, but at least he hadn't called him a liar. Throughout the story he hadn't said a thing, only lifting his eyebrow at some points to signify that he was really listening.

Now he continued to sit and ponder silently, his eyes glued to his desk and his brow furrowed in thought. The seconds stretched on to minutes and soon Kurt was becoming antsy. It had never taken him this long to come up with an answer, and that couldn't be good. That meant that he was just as dumbfounded by the whole thing as Kurt was.

It was a full seven minutes before he said anything. Finally, he brought his gaze back up to Kurt's, opened his mouth and said-

"You won't believe what they did this time, Chuck." Wolverine burst through the door and announced, holding up a red, lacy thong for all to see. He stopped when he saw Charles and Kurt staring at each other, clearly in the middle of something. He grunted in a way that Kurt thought was supposed to be an apology. "I forgot to knock…"

"It's all right, Logan," the professor managed a smile. "I'll see you in just a moment, but first, can I finish speaking with Kurt?"

"Of course," Wolverine grunted again and quickly exited the room.

Professor X waited for a moment before he continued speaking. Kurt didn't ask, but he figured that he was waiting for Wolverine to get out of earshot. After a few more seconds, he opened his mouth and said-

**Knock, knock, knock**.

Charles sighed. "Come in."

Ororo walked into the room, opened her mouth to say something, but then stopped when she saw Kurt sitting there. "Oh, I'm sorry, are you busy?"

"Yes." Professor X said politely. "But if it's important…?"

"No, no, I'll come back later." She moved to exit the room but turned before she walked out the door and leveled her gaze at Kurt. "I'll need to see you too, Kurt. There's something important we need to discuss."

Somehow he was able to guess what that might be.

She closed the door behind her, once again throwing the room into er, quiet.

And Kurt waited.

And Charles waited. And then he opened his mouth to speak-

**BRIIIING! BRRIIIIIINNGG!**

The phone on Professor X's desk rang. He sent Kurt an apologetic look before he answered it.

Kurt, meanwhile, wanted to scream in frustration. He was _this_ close to figuring this whole thing out and fate seemed to be trying to stop him. How odd…first he had tried to make things right and they went wrong anyway and now he was trying to hear the answer and it just wasn't happening.

Whoever was on the other line, Kurt was never going to forgive them.

"If you can make it, we would love to have you over for supper, Warren," Professor X was saying warmly.

Kurt's eyes narrowed. _Warren_. Of course it was _him_. That just figured. He was probably sitting in his big stupid mansion right now being stupid and handsome.

AND HE HATED HIM FOR IT!

"I apologize for the inconvenience, Warren," Professor X said, "but would it be alright if I called you back in say, ten minutes? I was in the middle-" He halted mid-sentence and listened to whatever it was that stupid Warren was saying. "Of course, it would be my pleasure. We look forward to seeing you…"

He hung up the phone, leaving Kurt to wonder why he didn't say goodbye. He couldn't stand when people failed to end a phone conversation correctly…

"Ok. I'm sorry for making you wait." The professor's hands folded on the desk again. "Where was I?"

"You hadn't started."

"Right." He opened his mouth, began to speak, but then stopped as if waiting for someone to burst through the door, knock on the door, call on the phone, or interrupt in some other way. When it seemed that no one was going to intervene this time, he started talking. "I have a theory. After a quick scan of your mind—forgive me for not obtaining your permission first—it was proven that you are, in fact, being quite honest with me."

He sighed. "This is…an usual problem, to say the least. There have been movies and stories similar to your predicament, but this is nothing that I've ever heard of happening in real life. We could always assume that these writers that wrote those other stories were correct. Perhaps all you have to do is the right thing and all will go back to normal. But you say that you have tried it already. And your memories tell me that you really have. Which leads me to believe…" His expression grew grim. "That something more sinister is going on here."

Something like a weight dropped into his stomach. "What do you mean?"

"Then again, I could be wrong." He said this in a light tone, as if he hadn't just given Kurt horrible news. "You haven't achieved the right thing yet. You haven't tried hard enough."

"Yes, I have!" He argued. "I tried to invite the Brotherhood over for dinner-"

"Maybe that wasn't the right thing."

"-and I tried to stop Scott from opening that stupid closet-"

"Maybe that wasn't the right thing, either."

"-and I tried to find you the perfect gift, but I couldn't! All I could find was a box of honey buns and a funnel!"

"I like honey buns."

"And Rogue ends up hating me every time! Somehow her secret gets out and it's always my fault!"

"I can't remember the last time I got a new funnel. It's been quite a while."

"Help me professor," his head bowed as his hands gripped his hair. "Please help me. You have to explain it. Why don't you think I did the right thing?"

"Think about it, Kurt." Charles urged. He came around the desk to face him and placed a consoling hand on his shoulder. "What one person perceives as right, another might see as wrong. You might be doing it wrong while you believe its right and that does not make it right by any means, don't you agree?"

"So…if I think it's the right thing to offer the Brotherhood food…"

"They probably see it as you showing off. You are blessed and you were willing to share that blessing, but to those who are not as fortunate, they may think you're looking down on them. Did you not invite them only after you had seen inside of their home? Did you not only invite them because you thought you had to? Or did you want them to come and join us for a meal out of the goodness of your heart?"

The man had a point there. Now he was starting to understand. He had to do the right thing, and he had to _mean it _or else it didn't count. That was annoying.

"And when it comes to Scott," Professor X thought for a moment. "Scott is the type that does not trust easily. So when you, one of the troublemakers of the house, comes to him with a warning, he will most likely not listen to you. No matter what day it is." He squeezed his shoulder lightly to emphasize his point.

Kurt blinked, confused. "Are you saying that I should let him get buried by marshmallows?"

"And when it comes to Remy and Rogue…I think the answer will come to you when the time is right."

"Um, Professor, that doesn't help."

Charles smiled. "I know."

Kurt stared.

"Kurt." Suddenly he was serious again, pulling his hand from Kurt's shoulder to fold it in his lap. "I can't say with certainty what is going on here, but I will give you one warning. In one way or another, you touched people's lives on this day. Make sure you interact with all of those same people. Make things right, but change as little as you can. That, I believe, is essential."

Kurt nodded in understanding and stood to leave. If he was supposed to be doing things the way he had been doing them, then he had some catching up to do. "Thank you," he said as he walked to the door.

"You're welcome." Professor X answered him.

"And for the record-" he continued and Kurt halted, his hand on the doorknob. "I think honey buns would make for a splendid Christmas present."

* * *

><p>Professor X's warning left him feeling uneasy so the first thing Kurt did when he left his office was try to remember who he should have interacted with. First there was Bobby, then Wolverine, then Remy and Rogue, then Kitty and Ororo. He glanced at his watch to see the time, but was annoyed that it seemed to be broken. That was strange. When had that happened? Judging by time that the watch was frozen at, it had happened at nine o'clock.<p>

There was no time to think about it now. He teleported to the kitchen, only to find it empty. He walked from there down the hall and into the living room. Ororo was sitting on the floor in here, wrapping the last of the gifts.

"Miss Ororo, you wanted to see me?"

She glanced over her shoulder at him but then went back to the present she was taping up. "No, its fine, I've got it covered."

"Covered? Who's covering it?"

"Kitty." She answered without looking up. "I needed someone to go to the store and she offered."

Knots immediately formed in his stomach. There was something about this, especially after Professor X's warning, that made him very uneasy. _He_ was supposed to be the one that Ororo asked to run an errand, not Kitty. He was supposed to be the one out on the roads right now, driving carefully over…over all the…all the ice…

Fear punched him hard in the gut. This was _wrong_. This was not the way this day was supposed to go.

He teleported back to Professor X's study and ran in without knocking. The man was sitting at his desk again, his hands folded and a calm expression gracing his features. The sight was so odd to him at that moment. His world was in a state of panic and Professor X was perfectly calm and unaware.

"Professor! I did it wrong—Kitty-" the professor must have read the rest in his head because instantly he was frowning and reaching for the phone.

"Calm, down Kurt. Nothing is certain. I'll make some calls and get an answer."

"Make some calls!" He cried in panic. "How is that going to help?"

Despite the situation, Charles remained stoic. He met the younger man's eyes across the room steadily. "I'm going to call the hospitals nearby."

Kurt's blood ran cold at the thought. If Kitty was hurt because of him…it was the very thing he had been trying to avoid this whole time. But if she was hurt, if she got hurt…he couldn't manage to even muster up the thought. What would he do? He had no idea. He didn't want to have an idea.

Professor X was talking on the phone to someone, polite as always. He asked for Kitty, waited a moment and then a look of relief came over his face and he hung up.

"She's not at that one." He told Kurt. "Now I'll try—"

**Briiiing**!

The phone rang. There was beat of silence between them before Charles picked it up, probably readying himself to tell whoever it was that he was busy, but then he froze.

"Emergency number, yes, I'm Charles Xavier." Professor X's voice was starting to lose that calm, just a little. "Is she…?" He stopped to listen to the voice on the other end. Neither of them said anything, but his eyes lifted and they met Kurt's.

And Kurt just _knew_. Something in the blue boy's heart died at that moment.

Kitty was…Kitty was…he couldn't say it, he couldn't even think it. There was no way; Kitty couldn't be-

"Kurt." Professor X's voice cut into his thoughts. "She's alive."

And then the world was right again, if only for just that second.

* * *

><p>They spent hours in the emergency room. The doctors wouldn't tell them anything, the nurses wouldn't tell them anything, not even the desk clerk would tell them what Kitty's condition was. None of them were family and so weren't allowed the privilege of knowing anything. They had to wait for Kitty's parents to fly in from Pennsylvania where they had been visiting other family members.<p>

No one would tell them anything, but they were nice enough to offer them a private waiting room, allowing them to stay even after visiting hours were over. No one spoke; no one said anything to each other. It was tensely silent for the most part; the only noise anyone made was when one of them had to leave the room for something.

It was well after dark when Kitty's parents finally arrived, looking shaken up and tearful. They were ushered straight to the back by a nurse and once again their room fell quiet.

To them it felt like hours, but in reality it was probably only fifteen minutes before the nurse came back in, her mouth set in a grim line.

"I've been given permission by her parents to inform you of her status." She hesitated for a second before continuing. "Your friend is alive. Her vitals are stable and she's expected to make it through the night. However," her frown became more pronounced, "she's suffered extensive injuries. There were a few witnesses to the accident so we know that her car hit some ice, it spun out of control, and then flipped several times."

Ororo gasped and then burst into tears. Kurt really wished she wouldn't do that. It was only making it harder for him to hold himself together.

"She broke several ribs," the nurse continued, "her left arm and…and her back." Even though the nurse was a professional, her lip started to tremble at this point and she cleared her throat before continuing. "It's…it's highly unlikely that she will ever be able walk again."

Everyone froze all at once. The silence was heavy in the air and then Ororo started crying again, Scott sank into a chair to stare in shock at the wall, and Jean went to comfort Ororo, though there were tears running down her own face. Kurt just stood and stared at the nurse in front of him, trying to take it all in. This was impossible. It was unreal. Kitty wasn't lying paralyzed in a hospital bed, she was at home making the worst food imaginable and being happy and bubbly and full of life. Just yesterday he had seen her and she was fine. How could she have come so close to death while he sat contently in Professor X's office? Why hadn't he known what she was going through?

It was all his fault. He shouldn't have been in that office. He shouldn't have let Kitty out of his sight. He shouldn't be standing here in this room right now while everyone cried around him.

In a daze he stumbled past the nurse and out of the room. No one noticed but he didn't care. He had to do something; somehow, he had to _fix this_.

It was so late that the halls were empty. There was no rhyme or reason to the route he took, he just moved down one hallway and then another until finally he was utterly alone and completely lost.

Distractedly he swiped at the wetness leaking from his eyes and tried to think. Now. Now. He had to fix it. It was his fault and he had to fix it. What could he do? He needed someone to tell him what to do. He needed help. He needed…

In one last desperate move, he dropped to his knees. He had been raised by loving, Christian parents who had taught him to pray. But it had been so long since he had done it, he couldn't remember the last time he had bowed his head. He didn't do it as much as he should, and even now guilt swelled in him when he only did it to get something, but it was all he had.

"Help me," he begged in a strangled whisper. "Please help me…I can't do it alone, I can't—I messed everything up, I know it, but if you can just give me one more chance, I promise I'll make it right." He squeezed his eyes shut tightly. "Please, please, I will do _anything_ you want, just please give me another chance, please…"

Things were getting hazy; his head swam and even his owns thoughts were becoming muffled. With a groan, he fell sideways and crashed onto his ribs. This hurt but that rushing sound filling his head was so soothing…


	10. Kurt's Happy Day

Kurt's eyes opened, eyelids fluttering in lazy contentment. He had just awoken from the most peculiar dream. The details were hazy but he knew it had something to do with the color pink, a couple of lonesome but friendly grizzly bears, and a brown something that continually swung back and forth in front of his eyes like a pendulum.

Well, now that he thought about it, maybe it hadn't been as pleasant as he had initially thought. He couldn't for the life of him imagine what had been so nice about a dream that contained grizzly bears.

But then, for the first time in four days, realization washed over Kurt. He still didn't remember the dream, but he knew what those little snippets meant. The color pink was there because it was Kitty's favorite color and in turn, it reminded him of her. The friendly, lonesome grizzly bears were there because last week he had read Goldilocks to the Morlock children. And that brown something that swayed in front of his eyes like a pendulum was Kitty's ponytail. He liked Kitty's ponytail.

Kurt grinned. He was back. Kitty was alive and well and able to walk and he loved her and he had another chance. This time, he relished in it. This time, he was going to do it right, and he was going to love every second of it.

Throwing the covers off of himself, he sprung from his bed and sprinted for the closet. He had only moved a short way when he slipped on the sock and fell to the ground.

Ok, so maybe he wasn't going to love _every _second of it.

The sock had tripped him up again, but this time, it didn't matter. He wasn't going to let it get him down, figuratively speaking only of course. That sock could trip him up all it wanted today and he didn't care. Kitty was ok and he had his opportunity to fix things. He was happy. In fact, he was so thrilled with his life right now, that he sat up and then grabbed the sock, bringing it to his lips to give it a loud kiss.

Maybe that was a bit _too _much enthusiasm.

But it didn't matter! He jumped to his feet and ran to his closet, threw his clothes on and then ran into the bathroom. After he brushed his teeth, combed his hair, applied the necessary amount of deodorant, and smoothed the hair on his tail, he walked out of the bathroom, ducked under the flying underwear, and then came back up and grabbed Bobby in a crushing hug.

"Whoa!" Bobby, who felt his masculinity being threatened, struggled to get away from him. "Dude! What are you doing? Get off me!"

Kurt squeezed before letting him go. "I was just hugging you. Merry Christmas!"

Bobby stared at him. "What the CRAP!"

Kurt just smiled. And that's when Wolverine showed up.

"Snow cone," he growled, dangling the red, lacy thong from one claw, "Elf. You've both got some explaining to—oof!"

He was cut off as Kurt grabbed him around the middle and hugged him tight.

"Merry Christmas, Mister Logan!" He said brightly as he stepped away again.

Wolverine's mouth hung open as he looked at him. Bobby was staring at him again, too. But it didn't matter. Nothing was going to stop him today. He reached out a hand and grabbed the thong off of Logan's claw, sending him an apologetic look.

"I'm sorry about your underwear. That was wrong of me. I'll…take whatever punishment that you see fit." It was the middle of winter, but Kurt could swear that he heard some crickets chirping somewhere. Wolverine just continued to stare at him with that far off and confused look on his face for several long moments.

Bobby, however, ran off in the opposite direction, giggling like a mad man.

"You…" The older man seemed to be trying to think of something to say. "…are being weird. Go away."

"Ok! See ya!" Grinning, Kurt sent him a salute and then teleported to a downstairs hallway.

There was that closet door again, and he knew exactly what was behind it. That was why he swung it open without hesitation and announced himself.

"Hey Rogue!"

Gambit and Rogue jumped apart quicker than he could blink.

"Oh, hey Kurt," Rogue said casually, "What's up—oh!"

Kurt crushed her to him in a strong hug. "Gambit is!" He said happily. "And Merry Christmas!"

Gambit still did not look guilty. Rogue just looked embarrassed and extremely confused. But before she could ask what Kurt was doing, he had let go of her and was giving Gambit a hug. But he stopped as soon as he felt something hard poking him.

It was a broom handle.

"Stupid broom-" Kurt pulled it out of his ribs and propped it up against the wall again. "Anyway," he turned his attention back to Rogue and Remy. "I won't tell anyone about this. But I will tell you that everyone except for Logan already knows. You probably don't want to stress anyone out during the holidays, but eventually Logan is going to find out one way or another. And its better you tell him than he just walk in on you, don't you think? Tell him. I think it's the right thing to do."

"Um-"

But Kurt was already gone on his merry way, sprinting down the hall to the kitchen. He couldn't wait to see her. He couldn't wait to-

He threw the kitchen door open and there was Kitty, covered from head to toe in flour, looking happy, and unbeknownst to her, being the most beautiful sight he had ever seen.

Glancing upwards, he said a silent _thank you _before rushing towards her. She turned to him, smiling.

"Hi Kurt! What are you-Kurt!"

He couldn't help it; she got the biggest hug of all. It was probably too hard for comfort but she didn't complain. Instead she hugged him back and then giggled when he picked her up and swung her around in a circle. He liked the sound so he did it again, and again and she kept laughing so he kept spinning. It was inevitable that they ended up on the ground, tangled up in each other and laughing life maniacs.

Ororo smiled knowingly to herself before slipping out of the room.

Once their giggling had subsided, Kurt rolled onto his stomach to lean over her. Without thinking, he pushed a strand of hair out of her eyes. "Merry Christmas, Kitty." He said softly.

She blinked up at him, most likely confused by his sudden affectionate behavior. Her cheeks colored. "Merry Christmas, Kurt."

He didn't hesitate before he spoke again. The time for being hesitant and cowardly was over. "Kitty, I like you. If Lance doesn't want you, then I'll take you. And if he does want you…then I'll take you anyway."

Her eyes widened. "W-what?"

"What?"

"I asked you first." She nudged his shoulder lightly and he moved out of the way so that she could sit up. "What are you saying?"

This conversation brought another one back to his mind. The one in the car when she had asked him if he was asking her out and he didn't answer…He should have answered. He should have told her then how much he wanted her. And she might have said…Now another memory came crashing back to him. Kitty had said right before she kissed him: '_If you had asked, I would have said yes.'_

He sat up as it dawned on him. Kitty would have said yes if he had asked her out. Kitty had hung onto him all throughout the grocery store. Kitty had laughed with him, and talked with him, and crashed the car with him, and enjoyed his company. Kitty had kissed him three times. And Kitty had lied.

And now he understood what she had lied about.

"Kurt?" She was looking at it him expectantly, still waiting for his answer.

"Yes, Kitty?"

"What did you mean by saying that?"

He smirked slowly at her before standing up. There was nothing more that he wanted to do than to tell her how he felt right now. But now was not the right time and somehow, today, he understood that. If he told Kitty now she might become embarrassed and not ask him to go with her to the Brotherhood house. And since he didn't want a repeat of yesterday, he would wait until the time was right. All he needed was some time. And for him, as of late, he had that in spades.

"Think about it." He grabbed her hand and pulled her to her feet. "Now. Were you going to do some cooking? Can I help?"

* * *

><p>The morning went by quickly. Because for the first time in a long time (it seemed) Kurt was having fun.<p>

He helped Kitty cook. Cooking and baking was not his area of expertise by any means, but he felt safe in following the directions to a T and encouraging Kitty to do the same. The hour that he had spent nearly every other day running from Logan, now he spent it helping Kitty. Speaking of Wolverine, ever since Kurt had (apparently) taken all the fun out of trying to kill him, the man wasn't trying to hunt anyone down anymore. He had come downstairs, appearing bored, when Ororo had asked him to go find a present for Professor X. And then he left.

Since Kurt had hardly left the kitchen, he hadn't run into Remy and Rogue again either. This was a welcome change.

At one point he did leave to go stop something. He walked into the living room just in time to see Bobby throw a whoopee cushion under Jean. Kurt teleported the last few feet, grabbed it before Jean could sit down, and then teleported again to the kitchen where Kitty stared at him as he threw it into the freezer.

He flashed Kitty a grin, she blushed, and then he teleported again down to the rec room.

Piotr, who sat avidly watching the Christmas parade, started to fumble around with the remote.

"Piotr!" He shouted, startling the man out of his frantic haste for the remote.

"Yes?"

"Bobby wishes he was a tortoise, Logan is insane, Kitty's nosy, Jean hears voices in her head, Scott has made more corny one-liners than anyone I've ever heard, Ororo's too scared to go under the covers in her bed, Professor X listens to our thoughts to know what we got him for Christmas, Tabitha's a pervert, Remy's a pervert, Rogue wears bad makeup and I'm blue and furry. Trust me. Liking the parade? You're the normal one."

And then he teleported.

"Hey Kitty," he greeted as soon as he was in the kitchen again. "Are you ready to go to the Brotherhood house?"

Kitty was ready to go so they packed up the cake and piled into the car. They were driving down the driveway when Wolverine, looking stressed and covered in blood while carrying a box of honey buns came walking past them towards the house. They stopped, their mouths agape and Kurt rolled down his window and asked what had happened.

"Wrecked." Wolverine grunted. "Be careful, there's ice on the roads."

Kurt just grinned. At least it wasn't Kitty this time.

Oh. Wait…he shouldn't think that. That was bad of him, wasn't it? Well…what the hey, it wasn't like Wolverine could die from a car crash anyway. So Kurt was happy.

Kitty stared at him the whole way over. It was very unnerving but he kept his eyes on the road. It wouldn't do to crash the car on the day that was finally going right. This time around she didn't talk about Lance or their relationship. She was very quiet and when he chanced a glance over at her when he came to the stop sign, there was a look of contemplation on her face. He didn't know what to make of it but he didn't try; he looked away quickly when she noticed him looking.

Finally they arrived at the Brotherhood house. Kurt unbuckled his seatbelt and moved to open his door but Kitty stopped him with a question.

"Were you serious?" She asked quietly. "You know, about what you said earlier. That…that you would take me?"

He gulped and forced himself to be brave. It didn't help that his hands were trying to start shaking. "Would I joke about something like that? I was being honest with you, Kitty."

"Then," she bit her lip and looked down at her lap, away from him, "how did you mean it? Did you mean like, romantically?"

This was so hard. Why was this so hard? Kitty was his best friend; shouldn't that have made this easier? He had never felt so sweaty in his whole life. "If-uh…if you want…I mean—I um…yes." What had happened to that calm, cool, confident Kurt? He had liked that Kurt.

"Oh, that's like…" She lifted her gaze from her lap and their eyes met. Slowly, she smiled. "Great."

All of a sudden he felt like the luckiest man in the world. "Really?"

"Mhmm." She blushed and quickly looked away again. "I haven't talked to him in weeks but do you think I should tell Lance I'm done with him?"

"Nah, he'll get the hint." He said quickly. "But you know what? I'm feeling the Christmas spirit. Let's invite the Brotherhood to supper."

Kitty liked the idea of getting more people's opinion on her cooking, and also thought that he was being, in her words, 'like totally super sweet' so she came up to the front stoop with him and rang the bell. Wanda, who was clearly feeling the Christmas spirit and loving everyone and everything in the world in a cloud of rainbows and glitter and fairies, greeted them politely.

"What?" She grunted.

"I brought cake!" Kitty said cheerily as she stood on the front stoop. "And also, do you guys want to come over for supper? We would LOVE to have you all there. It's Christmas, you know? Let's be happy. Merry Christmas! Here, take your cake."

Kitty had certainly become very happy all of a sudden. Kurt lifted an eyebrow at her before turning, smiling to Wanda. "Yeah, I know we've had some altercations in the past but its Christmas. We would like to put it all behind us…"

Wanda just stared at them for a moment, appearing bored before she shrugged. "I guess. What time?"

"Seven O'clock!" Kitty grinned. "Hi Toad!" She waved to Toad over Wanda's shoulder. "Merry Christmas!"

Toad stared.

"Alrighty then," Kurt said quickly before he could get sucked into a staring match. "Time for us to go…hope we'll see you guys for supper." He grabbed hold of Kitty's hand because it was totally necessary to do so as they walked off of the stoop…and across the yard…and all the way to the car. He really hated letting it go again, but that really _was_necessary in order to get into the car.

* * *

><p>They were home again. And he didn't want to leave her. He didn't want to leave her big, blue eyes and her little shy smiles and her relaxing company. But there was something that needed fixing and he was determined to make it right.<p>

He teleported upstairs just in time to see Scott and Jean approaching his door. He hadn't helped Bobby stuff the closet full today even though he had asked him to. But just because he had refrained from helping him, Kurt didn't doubt that Bobby had gone ahead with the prank by himself anyway.

And he HAD to stop it.

"We're not opening the gifts until later, but I wanted to give you yours now, you know, in private."

"Oh Scott," Jean said dreamily.

Kurt stood a safe distance away and waited for Scott to approach the closet door. He was walking, he was getting closer…his hand was on the doorknob-"It's in my closet," Scott said. "I'll get it right—"

Kurt teleported to the room, grabbed Scott, and then teleported again to stand next to Jean.

Neither of them seemed to have any words. They just stared in astonishment at the flying marshmallows, and then back to Kurt, and then back to the marshmallows that had settled on the floor. Wordlessly he trudged through the sea of white, picked a wrapped present off of the closet shelf, made his way back to Scott, and then placed it in his hand.

"Merry Christmas," he said before teleporting down to the kitchen where-

"Supper!" Kitty yelled straight into his ear. But he didn't mind. She could yell into his ear all she wanted. Yelling with her bubbly voice and those soft, pink lips-

"Kurt, why are you staring at me?"

"You're pretty." He said quickly and then looked around, missing her resulting blush. "Where's Professor X?"

"I think he's in the living room."

Professor X was sitting in the living room, admiring the lights on the tree. Kurt approached him and squatted to sit next to him, lowering his voice so that no one but the professor could hear him. "Professor. I have to ask you a huge favor."

"Yes?" Charles asked him politely.

"You know how Remy and Rogue are…together?"

The professor nodded in understanding. "Yes, I had suspected as much. What about it?"

"Well…I think they're going to tell everyone about them tonight. I…look, I know it's against your code but can you try to—uh—help Logan out?"

A single brow rose. "Help?"

"Yeah, just kind of you know, do your mind thing? Make him ok with it, just for Christmas? Please Professor…."

Professor X gazed at him for a moment before giving a little smile. "I'll see what I can do."

Ok. That was weird. He had been sure that he would have to convince him a little more. Maybe Professor X was really feeling the Christmas spirit this year…

* * *

><p>They sat down to supper fifteen minutes later, right after the Brotherhood had arrived and squeezed into the rest of the crowd around the table. And then, they had a normal, enjoyable dinner. Everyone was forced to try the potatoes. The delicious, creamy, buttery potatoes. And then they were forced to eat the corn. The normally salted, non burnt and tasty corn. It was all good and well.<p>

Until Rogue stood up.

"Everyone, Remy and I have an announcement to make."

Kitty gasped dramatically. "You guys are in LOVE?"

Rogue paused before nodding. "Yes."

Instantly Wolverine went frigid. The grip he had on his fork became so hard that his knuckles were a bright white. "Is that true, Cajun? Are you two-" he started to growl but then suddenly stopped and as a dazed, happy look overcame his features. "-in LOVE? That's great." he finished, sounding a lot more like Kitty than he ever had before.

"Are you for real?" Rogue asked incredulously.

"Yeah," Wolverine gave a drunk-looking smile. "We got any more of those potatoes?"

After everyone else (all of them looking EXTREMELY confused) congratulated Remy and Rogue, the dinner went back to normal. Kurt felt a great accomplishment at this. Everyone was happy, everyone was eating, Kitty was smiling at him, and Rogue didn't hate him.

And then, the strangest thing happened.

They finished their meal. Then all as one, they cleaned up the mess together. Ororo asked him to take out the trash and Kitty happily offered to come along with him. His heart immediately started up this annoying little tango inside of his chest as they walked out into the cold. It wouldn't stop no matter how much he mentally told it to. Oh well, it was kind of pointless anyway. Kitty would always have that affect on him.

Silently she hooked her arm in his as they made their way around the house and to the trash can. Taking out the trash had never been more enjoyable. He let go of her to swing the bag into the can and then turned around, only to find Kitty already so close to him that he could feel her breath on his neck.

"Kurt." She whispered. "Can I kiss you?"

Why was she asking him that? Didn't she already know that he wanted it?

She didn't wait for an answer. Her lips pressed to his before he had time to process it. And before he even had a chance to kiss her back, she had stopped. Her arms came around his shoulders as she stared up at him.

"Kurt," she asked softly, "are you ok?"

He was very confused by this question. Why wouldn't he be ok? Did he not look ok? He couldn't figure why he wouldn't look like the happiest man in the world; today had been the best day of his life.

"I'm fine," he responded and slipped his arms around her waist. "As long you're here, I'll be happy."

The mood shifted in an instant. Suddenly she was serious. "Kurt. I want you to be perfectly honest with me about something. What…what are your feelings for me?"

Should he tell her the truth? He had already done so once before and it had gone alright, except that she had become very flustered afterward. But now she was asking him straight out. If he was honest, how would she take it? There was only one way to find out.

"You're my best friend." He said quietly, reaching a hand out to tenderly push a strand of hair behind her ear. "Being with you…it would make perfect sense. I love you."


	11. Kurt's Christmas

Kitty ran away. She ran away. He told he loved her and she ran away. At least she hadn't looked scared, unhappy, or upset in any way. In fact, she had been giggling when she ducked out of his grasp and skipped off. He wondered if she had drunk too much eggnog.

How he was supposed to feel about this? He told the girl he loved how he felt and she giggled like a crazy lady and ran off in the other direction. Unless he was mistaken, he couldn't remember there ever being a moment like this in any movies. It wasn't like he was a fan of chick flicks, but in the few that Kitty had forced him into watching, never had there been a scene like this one.

It was weird.

Standing outside in the snow while in a daze was apparently something he was going to do every one of these days, no matter what. What if, all this time, he had been worried about his own sanity when it was Kitty's that he should have been concerned for? What if Kitty was the crazy one and he was the sane one?

There was no time to think about it now. It was getting late (late meaning eight thirty) and was time for bed. Now he was going to go to sleep and hope against all hope that he wouldn't wake up tomorrow and have to do this entire thing over again.

Trudging through the snow, he wondered what he would do if tomorrow started off the same all over again. At least today he felt like he had really accomplished something. No one was dead, no one wanted to die, and no one wanted him to die. It was a good day. He was certain he had done it right this time and so it was with a happy heart that he walked back through the back door and into the kitchen.

"Come on, Kurt!" Rogue popped out of no where and grabbed his arm. "Time for presents!"

He panicked. This was different! This was different! Why was it different?

The answer came to him as soon as the question itself did. This was what was supposed to happen on Christmas Eve the first time around. It was meant to be this way from the start and when he had messed things up, it hadn't happened.

"Wait!" He dug his heels into the linoleum to halt her progress for the living room. "But we didn't get Professor X a present!"

"Logan got him some honey buns; it was all he could find."

No. This was the last thing that he needed to fix, of that, Kurt was sure. But if he wanted to come up with a great present for his professor at the last second, he had to think fast. He had to think…Just like with everything else today, the answer just came to him. On instinct alone he knew what to do.

"Where's Professor X?" He asked quickly.

"I _think _he's in his study on the phone." She answered uncertainly. "But he should be right in…"

"That's ok," Kurt walked faster towards the living room. "We don't have much time but if we do this quickly, I know he'll love it."

Everyone turned to Kurt as he entered the living room which was, in his opinion, kind of freaky. The Brotherhood was gone now but Angel had arrived to take their place. Not that he ever could, of course. Because Kurt much preferred the company of his rivals than that evil winged creepy—

"I think Kurt has a plan for the professor's gift," Rogue cut into his thoughts by announcing.

And there was Kitty! She was sitting there in the corner whispering to Amara and Tabitha and giggling. Then she looked at him, turned really red, and then busted into a new fit of giggles. Starting to become offended, he was about to ask her what she was laughing about when Rogue drew his attention again.

"What's the plan, Kurt?"

Right. Professor X and his present. "Miss Ororo, you've still got that camera, right?"

"Yes," she nodded. "What are you thinking, Kurt?"

"We should get a group picture of all of us." He said, remembering Professor X's words: _I have all of you, and my X-men are the most important things in the world, to me at least._

"That is a good idea…" Ororo said thoughtfully. "My camera is upstairs, but we should hurry, he'll be here in just a moment-"

As if on cue, they heard the sound of a door opening and the mechanical drone of his wheelchair coming towards them. There was beat of silence as they stared at each other, wide-eyed.

"Everyone, quickly," Ororo whispered, "up to my room!"

They all ran for the door at once, falling over each other to be the first one out. The sound of Professor X approaching drove them faster and they pushed and shoved at each other until finally they were out the door and rushing up the stairs. The last person out was Kurt, whose tail had whipped around the corner, just as the professor rolled into the now empty room.

Charles stared. Where had everyone gone?

Meanwhile on the staircase, Kitty had collapsed with silent laughter and it took Wolverine (who looked like he was trying not to laugh) to scoop her up over his shoulder to get her to move. Bobby was laughing and trying to trip the others up, Amara looked like she was about to hit Bobby, Rogue and Remy were giving each other that, 'My love has constipated me' look, Piotr was looking at Kurt with a kind of weird admiration, Ororo looked like she was having fun, and Kurt was starting to suspect that they weren't taking this very seriously.

Finally they made it up the staircase and turned down one of the halls.

Just as the hem of Ororo's dress went around the corner, Professor X rolled into the foyer as he looked around, confused.

They were really gone, weren't they?

Upstairs, they had finally made it to Ororo's bedroom where they all squeezed in and shut the door.

"Ok everyone, stand up against that wall," Ororo said distractedly as she shuffled through her desk drawer before coming back up with a digital camera. "Warren, could you take the picture?"

Warren nodded and took the camera. Ororo ran to stand with the others just as Wolverine put Kitty (who was STILL giggling) down.

"Alright, all of you behave." Ororo ordered. "We only have time for one picture so Bobby—no faces. Kitty, stop laughing. Ok. Warren?"

Warren lifted the camera. Kurt forced himself to not blink. He wouldn't blink, he wouldn't blink, he wouldn't blink-

"Gross!" Amara wrinkled her nose and waved a hand in front of her face. "Who did it?"

A putrid smell invaded Kurt's nostrils and he, along with everyone else, gagged. A flash went off and Warren smiled at them over the camera. "Sorry, that was me!"

Kurt knew there was more than one reason to hate that man.

"Oh," Ororo looked like she was about to be sick. "That's going to look terrible but there's nothing we can do, we don't have any time. Give me the camera and I'll upload the picture to the computer…"

Kitty was laughing so hard now that she had collapsed.

Somehow they were able to print the picture off without any trouble. Somehow they were able to find a picture frame. Somehow Kitty managed to stop laughing. Somehow they were able to make it back down to the living room, where Professor X sat waiting patiently. And somehow they managed to calm down and sit as a family around the living room.

"Where did you all go?" Professor X inquired once they were all settled.

"To get your present," Ororo pulled the picture out from behind her back and handed it to him. "Merry Christmas, Professor."

The professor's eyebrows went up in surprise which he quickly tried to hide by looking down at the picture in his hands. "Why this is lovely." He smiled.

Kurt came around to stand behind him. He wanted to see the picture since he hadn't yet. Now he wished he never had. It was _awful_. But it wasn't awful by any normal standard, this was down right horrific. All of their faces were screwed up as if there was something stinky in the room (as there really had been) and Kurt noticed with a twinge of annoyance that his eyes were closed.

As if all of that wasn't already bad enough, Jean looked like she had been saying something, or about to say something, and so her mouth was hanging open and her eyes were halfway closed. There was a strange expression on Wolverine's face that was a mixture of irritation and amusement. Kitty was bent double but you could still see her face, which was twisted into a goofy look of hilarity. Ororo was smiling tightly but had a pained look on her face. Bobby was covering his nose with his hand and looked like he was about to throw up and Amara was doing the same. Rogue looked irritated and her hand was a blur as it headed for Gambit's hand that was positioned on her butt. Gambit's face was smirking. Hank looked normal for the most part, except that he was looking in the wrong direction. Piotr was so tall that his head was cut out of the picture. And Scott stood in the middle of them all, looking like a very serious man with great posture.

Kurt sighed in exasperation.

"I love it." Professor X said and surprisingly, he sounded honest to Kurt. "I really do." He roved his gaze over all of them. "Thank you." Looking back down at the picture, he smiled to himself. "This is how I'll always remember you all."

Kurt wasn't sure that was a compliment.

But Professor X liked his gift and that was what really mattered.

They went on to open the presents.

"Kurt!" Kitty, who had calmed down, grabbed up a present from under the tree and thrust it at him. "Open yours first!"

Kurt accepted the gift and shot an inquiring look at her but she had already skipped away to go sit on the floor by the tree. Trying to forget it for the moment, he tore open the wrapping. He opened it to find a watch. A really. Really. Really. Cheap one.

"We all chipped in together." Ororo said happily.

How much had they chipped in? It couldn't have been more than a quarter each.

"Thanks," he looked down at the old one on his wrist. "Mine is broke so I needed a new one."

"Yeah dude," Bobby clapped him on the shoulder. "I broke yours so we could get you a new one." He shrugged when Kurt just stared at him. "What? We couldn't think of anything else to get you…"

"Here's a present for you, Mister Logan," Kitty interrupted as she pulled another present from under the tree. "But it like, doesn't say who it's from."

Wolverine took the present and opened it. "What the—what is this?" he growled as he pulled it out of the box.

It was certainly the most insulting and cheap present Kurt had ever seen anyone get. Wolverine had pulled out a manikin's hand. That was the cheap part of it. The insulting part was that the middle finger of the hand had been broken off and was mysteriously missing. Kurt glanced at Bobby first, who was grinning. But then he narrowed his eyes on Gambit, who stood in the corner looking casual…_too_ casual.

Wolverine threw the hand back into the box and handed it back to Kitty.

After that it was pretty normal. Except for when another anonymous someone (Kurt suspected Gambit again) gave Scott a regular pair of sunglasses. Scott did not find this amusing. Between Scott's glasses and Wolverine's manikin hand, Kurt was just surprised that no one gave Professor X a pair of roller blades.

They all chipped in and got Jean a bottle of shampoo which Kurt suspected actually cost more than his watch (and he also wondered when they had all become so cheap). Hank got a really boring looking book, Piotr got a new belt, and Wolverine got a six pack of beer from the kids.

"And how did you get this?" He asked suspiciously.

They all looked in separate directions and tried not seem guilty.

"Here's another one for Scott!" Kitty said quickly to divert everyone's attention.

"Oh, I picked that one out." Rogue told them happily. "He's gonna love it—this is something that he's been askin for FOREVER."

Scott, whose curiosity had been peaked by this statement, accepted the gift. Eagerly he opened it and then pulled out a-a—A!

Purse.

Scott stared at it in confusion. "I don't remember asking for this…"

"Wait—," Rogue said, "That's not the one I was thinking about. That's for Kitty."

Kitty let out an excited squeal as she jumped up to snatch the purse from Scott's hands and hold it to her chest lovingly. "Yes! Yes! I _really_ like it!"

"I guess the name tags got mixed up-" Rogue said, embarrassed. "Here's your real present, Scott…"

After that, there weren't any more present mix ups and surprisingly, no more gifts from the anonymous someone. It was a very normal event and as Kurt sat contentedly with everyone, he very nearly forgot that he might have to do this entire thing over again. _Nearly_. He _nearly_ forgot. But not entirely.

On a day where he had seemingly done everything right, if he were forced to do it all over again, how could he possibly make it any better? Everyone was here, everyone was alive and happy and Kurt himself had no regrets this time.

And as he gazed across the room to where Kitty sat, he realized that he had enjoyed being given this fifth chance. Even now if he were forced to redo it all over, he would go about things exactly as he had today. No one was left mad or hungry or hurt. Kitty had agreed to date him. He knew now what she had lied about. She had told him: _I guess I like, love you too. As a friend only, of course_.

That had been a lie. She loved him, but not only as a friend.

From across the room she met his gaze. Kurt liked to think in his (perhaps a touch too dramatic) mind that somewhere, far off, something exploded when their eyes met. He knew that his heart felt like exploding, it was beating so hard. He loved her; he loved her so much…and as she looked at him from across the room, she busted into a fit of giggles and fell to the floor.

He really wanted to know what that was about.

…

Once Kurt had showered and was lying in his bed, he lay there hoping that he wouldn't have to do this again. He_really _wanted to be done with it all. He wanted to be able to take Kitty out on that date and to be able to eat something for supper other than turkey. He wanted to finally be able to-

**Knock, knock, knock**.

Someone was knocking on his door. Along with the opening of the presents, this was also something different that he hadn't done before. What if he did this wrong? What if he got through the whole day and RIGHT AT THE END he messed it up?

Before he had time to think about this possibility, Kitty phased through the door and let herself in.

"You're not naked under there, are you?" She pointed at the sheet over him.

"No." He tossed the cover back to prove that he was adequately dressed. "Why are you in here? You know Professor X's rule-"

"I know," she cut him off. "I just wanted to tell you something…"

She made her way to his bed to perch on the edge. He sat up quickly and inspected her profile lit up by the moonlight. Her head was bowed, her eyes locked on the hands twisting in her lap.

"Well, I guess you like, kind of noticed me laughing so much, huh?" She asked quietly.

"Kind of, yeah."

There was a moment of silence as she bit her lip. "I'm sorry, Kurt. I just...no one's ever said that me before. You know, no one except for my parents. I just like…when I'm nervous I get giggly..."

"But you laughed for an hour after that." He pointed out.

"Yeah," she agreed. "At first when you said it, I was just happy that you said it and I wanted to tell Amara. Then after I had run away I realized what I had just did to you and I got nervous. Then when you came in, I couldn't help it, I got so anxious that I couldn't stop, and then I eventually forgot what I was laughing about. But by that time I couldn't stop."

Kurt stared at her. That was one of the craziest things he had ever heard. How had she managed to kiss him four times without getting nervous but when he told her how he felt, she fell to pieces? Whatever. It didn't matter. He was just relieved to learn that she hadn't been laughing at him.

"I'm sorry if it hurt your feelings. I don't want you to think that I was laughing at what you said, because Kurt-" up until this point she had kept her gaze locked on her hands but now she lifted her head to meet his eyes, "-I love you, too. I have for like, ever. I didn't know what that feeling that I held in my heart for you meant until you voiced it first. Now I know, now I understand it—I love you, Kurt Wagner. I've loved you for a very long time. You're my best friend and I know that in one way or another, I'll always love you."

In the glow of the moon leaking through the window, Kurt could make out her expression. It was clear that in that moment Kitty was being more honest with him than she ever had been before. It was too much to ask for; this day had already gone so perfectly well that he almost felt selfish for getting more out of it. But Kitty loved him and this made him happier than words could properly describe.

She was coming towards him. He met her halfway. Their lips met and there was that feeling again; he was sure that somewhere far away something had just blown up. It was his heart. It was bursting with love for her—it was falling apart at the seams and melting into her kiss…

And then suddenly his head was swimming. Her mouth broke away from his as she pulled back to look at him worriedly. "Kurt? Are you ok?"

He tried to respond, but darkness was clouding his vision now. He was losing consciousness, but he fought it. He didn't want to lose this moment…

But it was no use.

As he finally gave in and passed out, he wondered where that nice rushing sound was.

It had been so nice while it lasted.

…

Hours later, Kurt's eyes opened. And this time there was no forgotten dreams, no fluttering eyelids, and no sense of déjà vu. There was just Kitty.

She appeared to have not slept at all and was currently chewing her lip worriedly. "Are you like, ok? You passed out last night."

Blinking rapidly, he sat up, nearly bumping into her. "What day is it?"

She stared at him for few seconds before responding. "It's Christmas."

Slowly, Kurt grinned.

He was back.


End file.
